Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island: This is it, the final Alternate Universal Century Gundam we’ll get until that Thunderbolt sequel (hopefully). I deadass ditched both work and my Japanese class just so I watched it in theaters Dubbed. Was it worth it? Ummmmm……..sure….? To be honest, not a whole lot happens in this anime, especially since it’s a retelling of one of the most infamous episodes with that Gundam the Origin spin to things. Is it as good as its predecessor? Only one way to find out.
* Plot:
* After a group of GMs goes missing after an encounter of a rogue Zaku on an abandoned island, White Base sends Amuro in his Gundam to scout the area. However, after losing to said Zaku, he becomes stranded and loses his mobile suits. While looking for it, he befriends a man named Cucuruz Doan, who’s an ex Zeonic soldier who deserted his post to support a group of children who live on the island.
* For the most part, it’s a by the numbers story based on one of the most infamous episodes in Gundam. That’s right, this movie is based on an episode so bad that they didn’t even bother dubbing it for western release. I’ve never seen the episode itself, so I won’t elaborate on what’s different between this and the movie. The plot ain’t half bad, I just wished there was more to it, which I’ll get to later.
* Characters:
* Compared the Origins characters’ personality, how does this movie compare? Unfortunately, not by much. They’re not bad, but compared to how “extra” the characters from The Origin were, this movie’s characters lack that. This especially the case for Amuro Ray, since he’s just there. Unlike Char from the Origin who had a great amount of character in the OVA, Amuro unfortunately lacks that. He doesn’t really do much that affects the overall plot other than looking for his Gundam while hanging out with Doan and his kids. I should probably get to him and his kids too should I. Despite being in the title, Cucuruz Doan doesn’t have much of a character as he’s just the chill dude who doesn’t want to be with Zeon anymore. And although it’s pretty obvious why, it would’ve been cool if they fleshed out his reasoning for leaving the Zeonic army and running an orphanage/small farm. As for the Orphans themselves, outside of one kid who was Shinn levels of annoying, these kids are alright. I like that they show us what Doan has to protect and why he must protect this island at all costs. I also like the other caretaker Cara for how caring she is. I always loved motherly type female characters in this kind of setting, as it shows that there’s still people who are kind, especially in war. It’s also nice that instead of ignoring Amuro, she was willing to help him.
* Now onto the 2 usually UC factions. Starting off with the Feddies, out of all of them I think Bright Noa (voiced by Kitann again, which makes me so happy) is the better one out of all of them. He’s the one with the better character as he ain’t willing to abandon one of his crew members just to follow his orders. I also like how they show us more of his and Mirai’s relationship, as she supports him when he feels uncertain of himself. Even though I feel unsure Slegger should canonically be here, I think his inclusion was very appreciated. He rather get court martialed than let one of his comrades get left behind, so I gotta respect that. Fraw and Sayla (especially considering Sayla’s role in the Origin), are unfortunately underutilized in the movie as they get sidelined in till towards the final battle of the anime. And shockingly I found the joke of the kids (Katz, Letz, and Kikka) doing a hunger strike pretty funny as they easily broke when Slegger mentioned ice cream. The rest don’t really do much and are easily forgettable. Which is a shame since one of them is voiced by best boy Bryce Papenbrook. For God’s sake, give my boy Kirito a major role in the One Year War, FUCK.
* Alright onto the Zeeks, and they don’t really fare any better. The only ones we know more about are the Southern Cross Corp. We got Egba, Wald, Salma, Yun, and Danan running the show and saying that they have personalities would be kinda generous. The only few things I remember about them is one has a lizard face, one gets stepped on like ketchup, and the other has anger management issues. Ya, the Zeeks kinda suck here.It says a lot when a flashback of Char has more personality then these bozos (I’m also glad Keith Silverstein voices him, even for a second).
* Overall the characters fell kinda flat as they each didn’t do much, or nothing at all. Which is kinda sad if you compared it to how much energy the characters from the Origin had. There’s one thing that could easily be fixed, but I’ll talk about it at the end.
* World Building:
* There’s not a whole lot I can talk about. The only form of world building I can actually remember is the island, as it looks like it’s been ripped straight from the Violet Evergarden movie. Like, would’ve it kill them to add more greenery to the area. Especially considering that the island is used for farming, you are not really gonna get far with a land mainly composed of dirt.
* I also gotta talk about the continuity with this and the Origin. It’s pretty debatable whether or not it’s part of the The Origin canon. There’s nothing saying that it isn’t part of the Origin, but there’s not really enough or any connecting tissue of the OVA. However, there’s a few things that differentiate this from the Universal Century continuity. For starters, Ryu isn’t in it like he was in the original. Which is a shame, since this could’ve been a chance to expand on his character (and given my boi Bryce a real role to play, but that’s besides the point). Also, this looks like it takes place after Jaburo with the original taking place before.There’s more, but I’ll get to it later.
* There’s honestly not enough to remember that makes this movie’s world building memorable. It’s either the usual BS with the Feddies and Zeeks that I barely remember or Amuro just chilling on the island. Which is kind of a shame with the Origin’s unique and interesting take on the Universal Century. I think they could’ve done something unique while staying faithful to the original Universal Century timeline. This highlights a major problem of this movie, which I’ll get to the end.
* Mobile Suits:
* Now onto the stuff that this movie actually does really well, the mobile suits. The fight scenes are actually pretty good as the mechanical choreography is really well utilized. Although the RX’s design has barely changed from the Origin, we get to see it in action for, so that’s nice. Nothing beats seeing a Mecha duel wielding, that’s all I need in life. And then we get Doan’s Zaku II, with that squished head in all of its glory. Does the movie ever explain how and why it has that ugly ass head?…… Nope. It’s literally just an excuse for Bandai to pump out PB kits of the same damn Zaku and fooling us into buying it. However, I do like how it’s damaged a little. It gives you a sense of what the damn thing went through. I also kinda like that it lacks any ranged weapons, showing you that it doesn’t have the typical advantages a regular Zaku II has and is forced to use whatever it has at its disposal. Plus this, along with the RX, doesn’t really have anything that conflicts with the OG UC canon. Can’t say the same for most of the other MS line up.
* As for the Feddies, we only get 2 Guncannons and a variety of GM variants. I actually do think that these designs are actually pretty good. The Guncannons redesigns aren’t half bad and I do like that it can swap between the typical shoulder Cannons and the Spray Missile shoulder launchers. I also thought GMs were pretty nicely designed. However there’s 3 variants that conflict with the UC continuity. The 1st GM is the one with the missile launchers on it shoulders, since a.) The GM Sniper Custom (Shimoda Squad Type) were the only known GMs with shoulder missile launchers, and b.) The vanilla GM didn’t have any missile launchers on their shoulders until the late UC 0080s in the form of the GM III. The 2nd GM, the GM cannon, had thicker legs because the regular GM frame couldn’t handle the recoil of the cannons (to be fair, it’s one cannon with a low caliber and less recoil, so maybe it could handle it). And then finally got Slegger’s GM. The man never used a single MS in the original, but here we have it in his colors should the fanboys can simp for and get robbed by P-Bandai.
* As for the Zeeks, All we get are Zakus. No Doms, No Goufs, Z’Goks, or anything before the Gelgoogs. This is the Zaku show here. Outside of the aforementioned Doan’s Zaku II and Char’s Zaku II High Mobility Type in the quick flashback, we got the Zaku High Mobility (Surface Type). It’s basically just a Zaku with the Dom’s legs on it. These Zaku are actually pretty cool, especially with their loadout. Even though it has the standard equipment; machine guns, bazooka, a heat hawk, they even threw in a heat saber for the hell of it, they even have some new weapons. They have an anti-ship cannon with a cool looking barrel and some heat daggers (one of them serving as a bayonet on a machine gun). Are they canon to the UC continuity? I dunno. But in all seriousness, the only time we see a Zaku with Dom legs is when Aina was testing them out in space. That’s all we see of it.
* Overall the mobile suits are decent, the problem is that we get the bare minimum. Especially in the case of Zeon, who are supposed to have a massive variety of mobile suits at their disposal, like the Gouf, Dom, especially the Z’Gok & Acguys since they’re primarily near a body of water throughout the movie. But instead, all we get are 4 different types of Zaku IIs and one of them only appears in a flashback. In the Federation’s case, it’s understandable since they barely started rolling out mobile suits at that time. But I honestly would’ve liked it if they showed their version of the Guntank, especially with what we saw with the early type. All I can say is that they don’t look half bad in 3-D animation
* Vertic:
* You know what could’ve made the movie better? Or better yet, you know what would’ve made the Origin anime better? I’ll tell you, IF THEY REMADE THE FUCKING ORIGINAL 79 ANIME. It’s crazy to think they haven’t done it already. Like, what’s stopping them? Even the manga of the same name is a remake of the original series. It’s a serious no brainer and it baffles me that Bandai hasn’t done it yet. As for the movie itself, the best way to sum it up is barebones. It feels less like a movie, and more like a preview in movie form. And I hope to god that this shows Bandai that we want an Origin style remake more than ever. Either way, you’re not losing sleep by missing it. The best thing I can say about this movie is that it’s better animated and it has a really good English Voice Cast compared to the original Cucuruz Doan’s Island episode. Otherwise, you’re better off with that recent Mecha lesbian fest.
View Reddit by Yakuza-wolf_kiwami – View Source