Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island (Japanese: 機動戦士ガンダム ククルス・ドアンの島, Hepburn: Kidō Senshi Gandamu: Kukurusu Doan no Shima) is a Japanese mechaanimated film directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. The film is based on the fifteenth episode of the television series Mobile Suit Gundam that suffered several animation issues as a result of poor outsourcing and Yasuhiko being hospitalized. Yasuhiko decided to remake the episode as a film due to his liking of the episode's original concept. The film is set in the One Year War, when Amuro Ray pilots the title Gundam mecha and is ordered alongside the White Base crew to search for Zeon stragglers on a remote island. It was released in Japan on June 3, 2022.
Plot
While the White Base is docked in Las Palmas, Captain Bright Noa receives orders from Admiral Gopp to eliminate any remnant Zeon operatives on the island of Alegranza to ensure the safe passage of Gopp's fleet for their operation in Gibraltar. Bright sends Amuro Ray, Kai Shiden, and Hayato Kobayashi to the island. As Kai encounters a group of children throwing rocks at his Guncannon, Amuro is ambushed by a Zaku and he and the Gundam fall off the cliff while Kai and Hayato are forced to retreat.
The next morning, Amuro wakes up in the ruins of the island's lighthouse and meets Cucuruz Doan, a former Zeon ace pilot and member of the Southern Cross team who deserted to protect the children who were orphaned after their families were killed during the early days of the One Year War. While helping Doan and the children harvest for food, Amuro spends several days searching for the Gundam on the island. Meanwhile, M'quve threatens to destroy several cities with nuclear missiles if Gopp does not stop his fleet's attack on Gibraltar. When M'quve loses communication with the missile base, he orders the Southern Cross to land in Alegranza and restore the launch sequence.
Aboard the White Base, Bright receives new orders from General Revil to head to Belfast to resupply and join the main fleet for the Federation's assault on M'quve's base in Odessa. He falsely tells the Federation that the ship is experiencing mechanical problems while secretly conducting a rescue operation headed by LTJG Sleggar Law. Amuro finds the cliff where the Gundam fell and climbs down to discover a secret Zeon naval base in a cave. Aside from finding the Gundam, he also learns that Doan has been secretly going to the base every night.
Sleggar's team arrives on the island, but they encounter the Southern Cross. Kai and Hayato's Guncannons are destroyed by the High Mobility Zakus while Sleggar and Sayla Mass crash land after Sayla's Core Booster sustains heavy damage. Doan boards his Zaku to confront his ex-comrades and destroys them one by one before he is disarmed by Egba Atler, his former commanding officer. Meanwhile, two members of the Southern Cross reach the underground base and activate the warhead's launch sequence, but Amuro boards the Gundam and quickly eliminates them. Just when Egba is about to kill Doan, Amuro appears to engage him in a duel. Amuro corners Egba on a cliff before slicing the High Mobility Zaku in half. The warhead launches into the atmosphere and separates into six missiles, but they self-destruct before heading to their target cities, indicating that Doan had sabotaged them.
Despite his plan going up in literal smoke, M’Qve is elated that there was someone who cared for the Earth as much as him, laughing as he leaves the room and his command staff in shock.
As dawn breaks on the island, Amuro uses the Gundam to carry Doan's Zaku and throw it off the cliff to remove Doan's burden of war from the island. Following the rescue operation, the White Base proceeds towards Belfast, flying over Alegranza as the children bid Amuro farewell.
The film originated from the 15th episode of Mobile Suit Gundam. Director Yoshiyuki Tomino said the episode had so many mistakes that he wanted to skip it and never release it. This was mostly due to art director and character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko being hospitalized. Although the episode was never released in western territories, Sunrise often referenced it in different installments.[1] Yasuhiko eventually revealed in the 2020s that the episode was also completely outsourced but still believed it had potential to tell a good story as a film. This studio that animated the episode was Anime Friend, a subsidiary of Tatsunoko Production that appeared in the credits of Cucuruz Doan's Island.[2] Yasuhiko also omitted the story from his own manga that retells the anime, The Origin, but was still interested by its themes.
Tōru Furuya reprised his role of the protagonist Amuro Ray and did not express any struggle despite not having voiced him in decades. Shunsuke Takeuchi voiced the title character Cucuruz Doan; he noted Furuya was one of his inspirations when working as voice actor. In recording the movie, Yasuhiko commented that Takeuchi was cast late already by the time most of Furuya's lines were recorded. Upon being selected, Takeuchi was glad with taking the role. Several recasts had to be made for the White Base crew. Furuya was nostalgic about the role and stated that the film made emphasis of how clashing was the relationship between Amuro and his superior, Captain Bright Noa.[3]
Due to the differences of demographics between the 1970s and the 2020s, the character of Bright Noa was redesigned as a more adult character rather than the young adult from the TV series.[4] Yasuhiko considered the film's children to be actual protagonists. In casting their voice actors, Yasuhiko aimed to make them noisy and separate them from the adult ones. The director wanted to prove that Japanese films could do better with child actors. Furuya elaborated that Yasuhiko's idea was making the movie realistic with Amuro acting more mature in relationship with the children. Another theme of the film was how the youth's lives are being ruined by the plot of the One Year War story from the original television series.[3]
According to producer Naohiro Ogata, the film's elements are "anti-war" and "smaller battles". Although the episodes generally are 20 minutes long, the original story was expanded to 100 minutes which, according to Kawai, would surprise the audience. Kawai personally wanted the film to properly depict Amuro's mecha RX-78-02 Gundam in the same fashion as the original television series from 1978. The team asked Yamato Works to help with the CGI animation, while Sunrise's staff member Shuhei Morita instead wanted to use hand-drawn animation. Ogata suggested that depending on the film's success, he considered other episodes also being remade as films.[5] The film was compared with Apocalypse Now by the director.[6]
Upon its release, the film made 300 million yen in Japan.[9] It debuted third on its first weekend, reaching 400 million yen.[10] It ended with 1.08 billion yen by the end of August. While the film was licensed by Crunchyroll for an English release, its debut in the United Kingdom was postponed for unspecified reasons.[11]
The film's Blu-ray and DVD was released in Japan on November 25, 2022. The limited edition includes the film's official soundtrack.[12]
Reception
Anime News Network praised the movie for the focus on Amuro's character arc and modern themes without removing the original aspects of the franchise.[13] Asian Anime Pulse also commented on the film positively for its handling of drama and animation, believing newcomers might enjoy it.[14]The Japan Times commented that every viewer would be concerned by Amuro's safety due to how the main plot has him surviving the encounter from the original TV series but still felt returning fans would enjoy the story and how the disciplinary actions performed in White Base are contested.[15]
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