Nina Tucker

Nina Tucker (ニーナ・タッカー) was the four-year-old daughter of Shou Tucker, the "Sewing-Life Alchemist". She tended to refer to the Elrics as "Big/Bigger/Little big brother.

Manga/2009 anime
Young Nina first appears in Chapter 5, when Edward and Alphonse Elric arrive at her father's estate in East City in order to study bio-alchemy with the help of his specialized notes and resources. However, the lonely little girl quickly forms a rapport with the Elric brothers, convincing them to spend a great deal of their time each day playing with Nina and her lovable dog, Alexander. The three kids (and canine) grow very close over the few days of their acquaintance and Nina confides in the boys that her loneliness is largely due to the fact that her mother had left her father two years ago, just before Shou Tucker received his State Alchemist certification, after which point his increasing immersion into his research greatly limited the amount of time he was able to spend with his young daughter.

Unfortunately, what the little girl did not understand was that her mom had not abandoned her family as Shou had claimed, but rather had become an unwilling human test subject in the secretly deranged State Alchemist's chimerical experiments and died. As Shou's yearly assessment approaches and his license comes into jeopardy, Nina attempts to console her depressed father, but her reassurances merely inspire the man to begin his depraved practice once again. While the Elrics are away, Shou transmutes Nina and Alexander into a Human Chimera using the same method with which he transmuted his wife. As he attempts to pass Nina off as his second speech-capable chimera, however, Edward realizes the horror of what the Sewing-Life Alchemist has done when Nina speaks innocently to him from inside her new monstrous form. But while Edward loses his temper and begins to thrash Tucker, Nina intervenes sadly, understanding the situation just enough to plead piteously for her father's life. Incapable of reversing the transmutation and not knowing what else to do, Ed and Al apologize to Nina and leave, but report Shou's actions to Colonel Mustang at Eastern HQ.



The Tucker house is labeled a crime scene as Shou and Nina are held under house arrest in anticipation of Sewing-Life's incarceration and court-martial, but before his transport to Central City arrives, the Tuckers are visited by the State Alchemist-killer Scar, who assassinates Shou. Nina starts to mourn for her father in spite of what he has done to her just before Scar delivers a mercy-killing to her, having realized that her future in this form can only be one of torment and suffering. Using his Destruction Alchemy, Scar breaks down the chimera's insides, instantly ending her life before praying for her soul as he flees the scene.

Initially unaware of Nina's fate, Ed has a nightmare in which he sees Nina and Alexander turn into a chimera. The Elrics find out from Hawkeye that Nina's father would have faced decommission and court martial for what he did to her but both have been murdered and Mustang, Maes Hughes and Armstrong are investigating the scene. The Elrics remain heavily conflicted over their inability to rescue Nina. Edward is depressed and humbled by the fact that even with all his power, saving such a sweet little girl was beyond him. While the Elrics are lamenting their failures to save their mother and Nina, Scar attacks them and they later find out that he murdered Nina and her father.

Ed continues to have further nightmares involving Nina as well as becoming emotionally compromised when reminded of her. At the end of the series, Alphonse cites Nina as a constant point of motivation for his brother and himself on their path to discover new ways in which alchemy can be used to help people rather than harm them.

2003 anime
In the 2003 anime, Nina's role is expanded a bit as the story is changed. Rather than visiting the Tuckers to study bio-alchemy, the Elrics stay with Shou and Nina for several months during the series' flashback while they prepare for the State Alchemy Exam. During this time, Nina shares multiple adventures with the boys, including the delivery of Maes Hughes' daughter Elicia and spectating at Ed's Alchemy Exam.

After she is transmuted into a chimera, Brigadier General Basque Grand, who had been privy to Shou's secret experiments and known the truth about Sewing-Life's wife, collects the Nina chimera in order to study her and create chimera soldiers from Sewing-Life's research. Edward manages to help Nina escape from custody, and calls out to her but she flees into an alley where she encounters Scar. Realising what Nina has become and the pain she is in, Scar recites a prayer as he uses his alchemical tattoo to ultimately deconstruct her before Edward can catch up. Rather than dying more-or-less peacefully in her home, as in the manga, the 2003 anime has Nina completely blown apart, with almost nothing remaining of her but large bloodstains on the walls and street. Upon discovering Nina's remains, Alphonse quickly deduces what has happened. A horrified Edward apologises for his inability to save the girl he had grown to love as a sister and mourns for her, becoming conflicted over whether or not to become part of a system steeped in such horrors. At first Ed thought Barry the Chopper killed Nina, since his murder spree was coincidentally occurring around the time of her death and set out to find him only to be captured and threatened by him, causing Ed to recall seeing Nina as a chimera and her remains. Ed would not learn that Scar was Nina's killer until three years later when Hughes informed him.

Later in the series, it becomes apparent that Tucker, who had survived in custody, has made attempts to revive Nina by using her remains to clone her a body and filtering out the contamination from Alexander's DNA by siphoning it into his own body and becoming a grotesque Human Chimera himself. However, since Tucker cannot call back Nina's soul or even create a new soul for her, he is only able to create a lifeless Nina doll. Nonetheless, Tucker continues trying to find a way of reviving Nina as her lifeless doll form is last seen in his arms while he makes sketchy blueprints on a wall.

Several scenes depicting Nina with the Elric brothers and/or Alexander appear in the end credits of Episode 7. Nina later appears in the end credits of at least Episodes 42-50.

Appearance
Nina Tucker was a very cute young girl with blue eyes and long brown hair pulled back into braids which hang past her waist. She was also seen wearing a pink collared long-sleeved Polo shirt under a blue dress with bright yellow/gold buttons. Her outfit included some clogs for shoes. Nina also wore a purple winter coat which had a pink collar, cuffs and hem and a white scarf underneath.

In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009 anime series), she can be seen wearing at least two outfits which were inspired by the manga. Her dress is a very pale shade of green with silver buttons and a pink short sleeved shirt underneath. Her shoes and socks of choice remain the same though the color is a bit different.

She also sports a school uniform like shirt which is red with a collar on the back and a black line of decoration and sky-blue shorts. One can assume she attends school in this series contrary to the original where she appears to stay at home with her father.

Nina's eyes are also a bit deeper of a blue in Brotherhood and her hair is more of a light brown than reddish brown as in the 2003 Anime.

As a Chimera
After being alchemically fused with the family dog, Alexander, by her father, Shou Tucker, Nina inhabits the body of a dog-like beast. This creature has a brown mane the same color as Nina's original hair. This chimera has the ability to speak, as did the chimera Tucker created from his wife.

From what is known, most likely Alexander was a breed of dog known as a Great Pyrenees. After the Chimera is fused Alexander loses his white fluffy appearance for a peach skinned hybrid creature with a carpet of hair growing out of its back. It is also noted that Nina seems to be a bit unsure of her memories after the transfusion.

Revived Nina's Appearance (2003 Anime Only)
As a clone, Nina is seen naked with her long hair being the only thing to cover her doll-like form. The first half of the body experiment, we see her body covered in hair which very much resembled how the chimera was draped in it. We also see, when Ed first discovers Tucker's work, a series of glass tanks containing the original chimera's body and then a Nina covered in brown fur. Her eyes appear to be empty and she also looks a bit older (4 years later so she'd be 8). Her hair is also very long at this point. We also see a tank full of Nina bodies, forming animal sacrifices, according to her perturbed father.

Trivia

 * The musician Dana Simpson wrote a song called "Still Nina", released in May 18, 2005 as a tribute to the character Nina Tucker of the Full Metal Alchemist series.