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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 mecha animated 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.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Screenplay by	Toshizou Nemoto
Based on	Mobile Suit Gundam by Yoshiyuki Tomino
Produced by	Naohiro Ogata
Starring	Shunsuke Takeuchi Toru Furuya Atsushi Miyauchi Fu Hirohara
Cinematography	Takeshi Kuzuyama Ryou Iijima
Edited by	Kazuhiro Nii
Music by	Takayuki Hattori
Production company	Sunrise
Distributed by	Shochiku
Release date	June 3, 2022 (2022-06-03)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Box office	1.08 billion yen

Plot

The story is set after the Federation defense of Jaburo, with the Federation planning to renew offensives on Zeon's invasion headquarters in Odessa. Amuro and the White Base head to Belfast to resupply, but the White Base receives new orders: to head to the "Island of No Return" to search and destroy any Zeon stragglers.

Production

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 Productions that appeared in the credits of Cucuruz Doan's Island.[2] Yasuhiko also ommitted the story from his own manga that retells the anime, The Origin, but was still interested by its themes.

Toru 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 the 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]

The film's theme song is "Ubugoe" by Hiroko Moriguchi.

Cast

The cast includes:[7]

• Cucuruz Doan – Shunsuke Takeuchi
• Amuro Ray – Toru Furuya
• Egba Atler – Atsushi Miyauchi
• Cara – Fu Hirohara
• Hayato Kobayashi – Hideki Nakanishi
• Johann Ibrahim Revil – Hiroshi Naka
• Elran – Hiroshi Shirokuma
• Staff Officer – Katsuyuki Konishi
• Bright Noa – Ken Narita
• Yun Sanho – Koji Yusa
• Uragang – Makoto Yasumura
• Sayla Mass – Megumi Han
• Fraw Bow – Misato Fukuen
• Gopp – Naomi Kusumi
• Mirai Yashima – Satomi Arai
• Selma Livens – Shizuka Itou
• M'Quve – Takumi Yamazaki
• Sleggar Law – Tomofumi Ikezoe
• Kai Shiden – Toshio Furukawa
• Ren – Yōji Ueda
• Marcos – Yūma Uchida
• Danan Rashica – Yuu Hayashi

Release

Upon its release, the film made 300 million yen in Japan.[8] It debuted third on its first weekend, reaching 400 million yen.[9] 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.[10]

The film's Blu-ray and DVD will be released in Japan on November 25, 2022. The limited edition includes the film's official soundtrack.[11]

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.[12] Asian Anime Pulse also commented on the film positively for its handling of drama and animation, believing newcomers might enjoy it.[13] 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 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.[14]

References

External links

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island (film) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

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