English Dub Review: Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island 

Overview:

Set within the events of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, Cucuruz Doan’s Island strands acclaimed mobile suit pilot Amuro Ray on a secluded island that’s inhabited by a group of orphaned children and a disgraced Zaku fighter who’s responsible for their displacement. Amuro tries to make the best out of this situation and return to his team. However, his confidence clashes with Cucuruz Doan as these two sides of the same coin argue over what’s best for the island’s inhabitants, but also open each other’s eyes to alternate ways of life .

Our Take:

Yoshiyuki Tomino’s Mobile Suit Gundam has endured for more than 50 years and become the preeminent mecha series that’s influenced countless other giant robot series. There’s been a run of movies that have turned to adapting the events of the original Mobile Suit Gundam into cinematic stories, but Cucuruz Doan’s Island adopts a slightly more curious approach. This movie is a feature-film adaptation of episode 15 of Mobile Suit Gundam, an entry that’s never properly been released or streamed outside of Japan and been skipped at the behest of the production team. Now, audiences can not only experience this small-scale Gundam story for once, but experience it in an expanded state that celebrates classic Mobile Suit Gundam at its best. That’s a lot of context to say that Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island delivers plenty of vintage Amuro Ray action as he busts Zaku and soothes audiences back into this iconic universe.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island is full of humble moments where children enjoy food, chores, and just the ordinary lives that they’ve found for themselves on this island. They exist in their own bubble that’s immune to the political warfare and bloodshed that only intensifies in space between Zeon forces and the Earth Federation. At so many moments this feels like a Studio Ghibli take on Gundam or the “Ms. Lookalike” interlude in Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon A Time. In a film that’s fascinated in humanity and empathy it’s no coincidence that so many fiery mobile suit explosions are preceded with quiet moments of reflection where doomed pilots get the opportunity to eulogize themselves. 

This is a movie that’s just as interested in an extended sequence on the intricacies of milking a goat as it is in galactic warfare and international treaties. This may leave some viewers frustrated, but it’s a beautiful reflection of the nuance of Mobile Suit Gundam. This franchise’s characters and relationships are just as much a testament to its enduring nature and legacy as the mobile suits. In fact, there’s some surprisingly powerful symbolism in the recurring image of a broken lighthouse that can’t serve its purpose, not unlike the identity crisis and malaise that Doan experiences before Amuro is able to help him get his groove back. It’s a powerful extension of this metaphor when Amuro is the one who’s able to finally restore the lighthouse’s light, even if it’s a little heavy-handed.

Cucuruz Doan’s Island does find itself in a perfunctory power struggle and temporary clash of egos between Amuro and Doan in this new environment. It’s pretty paint-by-numbers anime filler fare, but it still connects here and works as a relatively satisfying character study on both of these alpha individuals (although Doan, inevitably, comes across as feeling more generic). While less developed, the friendship that forms between Amuro and Marcos, who are able to put their differences aside for the greater good, is also a satisfying reflection of Amuro’s softer side. It may sound glib, but the advice that Doan errantly spouts out that “Fighting isn’t the only way to be strong” becomes a poignant distillation of the struggles and themes within the movie.

There’s a substantial portion of Gundam fans who just come to this franchise to watch giant robots destroy each other in space. That’s not this movie’s priority, nor does it ever pretend to be, but there’s still plenty of explosive action sequences that will satisfy that corner of the fandom. Cucuruz Doan’s Island features lots of thrilling one-on-one fights as well as aggressive tag-team attacks. The movie has its share of suspenseful setpieces, whether it’s the opening onslaught, the battle in Belfast, or the concluding showdown on the eponymous Alegranza Island that’s set against a stunning crimson sunset. Nuanced battles occur on land, air, and even the sea as the full range of the mobile suit’s capabilities get shown off.

There are certain surprise attacks that turn Amuro’s RX-78-2 Gundam into a straight-up slasher boogeyman from a horror movie. There’s a painful reluctance to Amuro’s actions within the RX-78-2 that are palpable, and yet he understands what needs to be done. At the same time, Cucuruz Doan’s Island also makes sure to show off many of the humbler mobile suit creations from early on in the Universal Century timeline. The Guncannon, Guntank, and Zaku all get moments to shine and come across as devastating tools of destruction, despite their somewhat quaint, archaic nature in hindsight of the Gundam franchise’s 50 years. In this sense, Cucuruz Doan’s Island never forgets the foundational building blocks that helped Mobile Suit Gundam reach its current heights. Reverent nostalgia meets arresting modern animation in this odd love letter to the mecha series’ past.

Cucuruz Doan’s Island is a delight on all fronts that doesn’t try to overextend itself beyond its reach, but the animation is the thing to get most excited about in this movie. The visuals are truly gorgeous and they’re honestly as much of a reason to see this film as it is an opportunity to experience another classic Universal Century Gundam adventure with Amuro Ray and the rest of the old crew. Universal Century Gundam has never looked as good as it does here and simple actions like beam swords slicing through shield and armor hit with a red-hot intensity that was never present in the combat of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. 

Director Yoshikazu Yasuhiko should absolutely consider this movie a success if this was meant to “redeem” the original “lost “Cucuruz Doan’s Island” of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series. It might be stretching a metaphor a little far, but Yasuhiko’s victory is not unlike Doan’s own redemption in the movie. 

The movie’s score by Takayuki Hattori is equally thrilling and it rises to the challenge of a sound that’s both evocative of the 1980s, yet also progressive and modern. It elegantly accents the movie’s action-packed visuals. Finally, Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island won’t let down the long time dub fans and this movie makes the effort to assemble the original cast like Lucien Dodge as Amuro Ray, Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Sayla Mass, and Christopher Corey Smith as Bright Noa. They all sound like they’re having a great time returning to these iconic characters, especially Dodge who hasn’t necessarily gotten to explore this essential side of Amuro’s character in past dubs.

A worthy question to ask with Cucuruz Doan’s Island is if this amounts to inside mobile suit baseball or if it’s a worthy story that’s accessible to outsiders. The short answer to this is “Yes,” but those audiences aren’t likely to get nearly as much out of this. Cucuruz Doan’s Island works as a standalone story, but anyone who’s interested in an anime movie that hits these bases would still just be much better off sticking to a proper Studio Ghibli film. That’s not to say that this movie’s demographic is purely Mobile Suit Gundam fans, but everything in Cucuruz Doan’s Island hits a little harder for those that are well-versed in Universal Century chaos. The film exists in a nebulous, filler-like existence that helps it broaden its appeal, but ultimately smooths off its edges in the process.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island isn’t the be-all end-all mobile suit story, but there can be so much doom, gloom, and loss in Gundam shows that it’s appreciated that this movie contains so many moments where characters humbly enjoy the simple basics of life. Cucuruz Doan’s Island leaves its audience smiling over what makes life worth living rather than a somber conclusion that emphasizes the endless cycle of war (which is still very much present when this movie reaches its finish). Amuro’s triumphant act where he throws Doan’s Zaku off a cliff, as on the nose as it is, still amounts to one of the more moving conclusions to a Gundam movie. It’s a powerful visual metaphor for the end of this warrior’s old life and a self-aware transition for both individuals. It’s not the Mobile Suit Gundam movie that will necessarily turn newcomers into fans, but it’s the type of Gundam movie that deserves to exist.

Now, let’s just get a spin-off OVA series where Blanca the goat gets to pilot some kind of mobile suit for the Barnyard Federation…