How Fullmetal Alchemist’s Most Horrific Scene Became a Beloved Anime Meme

Among Fullmetal Alchemist fans, the outwardly unassuming Shou Tucker is the most vile and widely hated person in the entire saga as a scientist who went way too far with the law of equivalent exchange. In order to achieve that level of hatred, a person would have to do something truly vile. So, what did Shou Tucker the "sewing life" alchemist do to exhibit such hate from viewers?

Shou Tucker took his daughter and dog, blended them together, and made a monster that begged for death from the moment of its creation. When it comes to harming children or animals, audiences are rightfully unforgiving. However, when confronted by something so horrific in anime, many turn it into a dark joke to lessen the discomfort it creates. An entire niche of memes parodying and joking about Tucker's darkest moment was birthed almost immediately after.

Updated on October 21st, 2023 by Louis Kemner: This feature about the horror of Shou Tucker's infamous experiment has been updated and expanded with new material.

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Shou Tucker gained notoriety as a state alchemist due to his ability to create a chimera -- which he made by secretly fusing his wife with a dog. After failing to produce something that impressed the government after years of being a licensed state alchemist, he figured his life would be over if he lost his license. Desperate to avoid that at all costs, Shou Tucker produced a second chimera, only this time he used his daughter Nina Tucker and their big white pet dog, Alexander.

The scene where shonen protagonists Edward and Alphonse Elric find Tucker with his new chimera is haunting, as the two brothers piece together how Tucker made the chimera. Even worse, Tucker seems to have no remorse for his actions, showing defiant pride in what he did. For many Fullmetal Alchemist fans, the then-villain Scar quickly dispatching both the Chimera and (depending on the anime version) Shou Tucker himself is an act of both mercy and justice.

This event happens fairly early on in all versions of Fullmetal Alchemist. In the manga, this takes place in the fifth chapter, collected in its second volume. In the original anime, it's in episodes 6 and 7. In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, it happens in episode 4. This was the source of many viewers' realization of just how intense this series could get. Many media sources have marked it as one of the most depressing scenes in any anime, even when compared to anime like Evangelion, Berserk and Clannad: After-Story.

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To no one's surprise, the Nina meme started on 4chan. In a thread on the /a/ board, 4chan users anonymously posted a thread about anime animal noises. Almost immediately, one user posted an image of the Nina-Alexander chimera, which left even other channers a little uncomfortable.

From there, Nina became a common source of shock value/humor on the image board, often on the anime side of the site. In a bizarre turn of events, it would be the rival image board site Tumblr that outshone 4chan in the sheer morbid humor department. A now-infamous thread started by Tumblr user lychgate would become one of the biggest viral posts of the meme.

Why Did FMA's Nina Tucker Meme Evoke Such a Strong Response?

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From there, Nina memes spread like wildfire, each one more morbid and darkly hilarious than the last. The fact of the matter is that these posts had a strong response among people, but why did it happen? Why do people enjoy talking about this profoundly disturbing moment? It may also connect to the human mind's habit of focusing on dark and dangerous material for survival's sake, like how people simply cannot look away from a car crash. Anime fans could tolerate the Elric brothers attempting human transmutation and burning down their house, hence the "Don't Forget 3 Oct. 11" locket, but the Nina-Alexander case was different.

Even the most dedicated fans of horror and other dark fiction may agree that there's a serious difference between a story torturing or maiming a tough, combat-ready protagonist vs torturing an animal. It's widely accepted as the final line that people must not cross. Unlike people, animals are always innocent and never deserve torture or other harm, and they don't even understand what's happening. That's why seeing the Nina chimera was such a shocking scene that changed Edward Elric's life forever.

If Shou Tucker used alchemy to mutate his daughter beyond recognition, that alone would make him a monster, but getting a dog involved, a lovable and innocent pet, made it far worse. Fullmetal Alchemist fans aren't being asked to decide whether they feel more sorry for Nina or her pet dog Alexander -- it's the fact that both were involved, with every line being crossed, that made it such an infamous scene that anime fans can't accept at face value.

FMA Fans Used Humor to Process Shou Tucker's Unforgivable Crime

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In the face of truly disturbing events, humor is sometimes one of the greatest coping mechanisms people have. While many fans might find the Nina Tucker memes frustrating, even distressing, for others, this is a form of collective therapy after this fairly disturbing moment in one of the most widely-watched and most popular anime series to ever air. It's almost like the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom is trying to "fix" the nightmarish Nina and Alexander chimera scene, refusing to accept it as a grotesque tragedy that no one, either Edward Elric or an anime viewer, can do much about.

So, fans evidently tried to reclaim the chimera dog incident by turning it into something darkly funny and taking control of it. This may range from making borderline gallows humor about what exactly Shou Tucker did to his family all the way to "saving" Nina Tucker and similar anime girls by depicting a heroic intervention. One example is a crossover with the comedy anime Spy x Family, which also features a little girl, Anya Forger the telepath, with her white-furred pet dog Bond. One meme suggested that Shou Tucker was about to fuse Anya and Bond into a chimera, only for Anya's protective foster mother Yor to swoop in, ready to stop Shou with her elite assassin skills.

Fullmetal Alchemist

The Fullmetal Alchemist franchise spans manga, light novels, anime series and films, and live-action movies. When a failed alchemical ritual leaves brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric with severely damaged bodies, they begin searching for the one thing that can save them: the fabled philosopher's stone.

Created by

Hiromu Arakawa

First Episode Air Date

October 4, 2003