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"Gundam will stand on Earth once again."

Cucuruz Doan's Island is a 2022 Gundam movie by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, character designer and animation director of the original series (as well as the author of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin). It is an expansion and adaptation of the original series' episode 15 of the same name. This is particularly notable because for a long time E15 was the Missing Episode, pulled from overseas release by Yoshiyuki Tomino.

When White Base is ordered to investigate Zeon stragglers on the island of Alegranza, Amuro sets out in search of soldiers that were left behind but instead finds a group of children and a Zaku that shouldn't be there. Losing the Gundam in a battle, Amuro meets a man who calls himself Cucuruz Doan, who is looking after the children, having been traumatized from his time in the war. Meanwhile, Zeon's forces plan to make their move against the Earth Federation using some nuclear warheads which happen to be hidden on the same island Doan is residing on. As a result, some demons and faces from Doan's past find their way to the island, forcing him and Amuro to help each other to stop Zeon's plot and face the latter's past, respectively, while White Base's crew try to search for their invaluable ace.


Tropes in this movie include:

  • Ace Pilot: Doan is considered to be one of Zeon’s best pilots, with his skills being directly compared to that of Char Aznable himself. He lives up to that reputation by taking out two of the Southern Cross Corps, an Zeon MS team comprised of veteran pilots, and their advanced High Mobility Zakus while fighting in a worn down standard-issue Zaku II being held together with salvaged parts.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: M’Quve is left laughing at the failure of his scheme, speculating that like Hitler he also had a soldier who valued civilization.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Doan has a redesign that leaves him more ruggedly handsome and with a different hairstyle than originally.
  • Adaptational Dye-Job: The colors on Sleggar's GM have been tweaked from its manga depiction. In the manga it's confused for the Gundam several times with a white color scheme and blue torso. In the film it has a grey color scheme (akin to the standard GM's) and teal torso.
  • Adaptational Modesty: Rather than spend his time on the island reduced to his underpants like the original episode, Amuro either keeps his pilot suit tied on or borrows a pair of pants from Marcos, making this one of Amuro's very few appearances where he's not shown in his underwear at some point.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy:
    • In the original episode Amuro accuses Doan of misleading the orphans for his own benefit and gets slapped by Cara's counterpart. He's far less cynical here.
    • Played with with the island children; here they throw rocks at mobile suits and at least one of them casually and enthusiastically wishes death on Amuro, but they don't throw rocks at him like the original kids did.
  • Adaptation Deviation: This version is set in The Origin continuity rather than that of the original TV series - White Base has come across the Atlantic from South America after Zeon’s failed assault on Jaburo and is heading to Belfast and the coming Battle of Odessa, which is the order of events from The Origin. It also means Doan's island is now in the Canaries, rather than the Pacific near Japan, Hayato has a Guncannon with missile pods, Sleggar Law is already on the crew, and Amuro has teal eyes and lighter hair.
  • Adaptation Expansion: And how! The 22-minute original is expanded into a 110-minute movie. A number of individual aspects are also expanded upon:
    • Doan's little family of orphans grows from three to twenty.
    • Instead of just two Zakus, the island is found by the Southern Cross Corps, a unit of five.
  • Adaptation Name Change: Cara was called "Rolland" in the original episode; likely changed because a character with the same kana (ro-ra-nu, Loran) became the main character of ∀ Gundam in 1999.
  • Adapted Out: None of the twenty children on the island are the three Doan was looking after in the original story.
  • Analogy Backfire: M’Quve tries to threaten Admiral Gopp by quoting Adolf Hitler's famous line "Is Paris burning?" to illustrate his intent of laying a chunk of the Northern Hemisphere's cities to waste with nukes. Gopp then punctures this by pointing out that the Allies took Paris intact (because a subordinate refused to carry out the sabotage orders). A visibly irritated M’Quve acknowledges the point, but notes that unlike Hitler, he will succeed.
  • The Atoner: Doan supports his family of orphans to atone for his actions in the war.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Sayla asks someone off-screen if they'll take over as Communications Officer for her while she goes out to pilot. Then we see it's not Frau Bow, but a Canon Foreigner member of the regular crew – this allows Frau and the kids to tag along to Alegranza for the ending.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Amuro Ray shows up with the Gundam to save Cucuruz Doan from being killed by the Southern Cross Corps leader and engages him in battle with two beam sabers.
  • Bitch Slap: Sleggar gets one from Sayla because he can't ask for a ride from her without the Double Entendre.
  • Blood Knight: Dannan, one of the Southern Cross Corps is this as he is eager for a real challenge and finds the Federation forces to be no fun when he cuts them down. He is even eager to face the infamous Cucuruz Doan even though his teammates see the man as a traitor. He finally gets his wish to fight Doan when his team encounters him on the island where the nuclear missile is, and is the first to attack.
  • Breaking Old Trends: This is the first English dub where Kikka Kitamoto, Katz Howan and Letz Cofan are all voiced by real children, unlike the previous attempts where they're voiced by older women.
  • The Cameo: Amuro's parents Tem and Kamaria and Char Aznable make appearances in Amuro's Nightmare Sequence.
  • Chekhov's Skill:
    • Played straight with Amuro's engineering talents; as soon as a broken lighthouse or broken plumbing is mentioned, it's a given he'll eventually fix them.
    • Subverted with Hayato, who tries a judo stance when attempting to catch Blanca the goat. His judo training lets him defeat many soldiers in this continuity, but it apparently doesn't work on animals.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Sleggar crashing his GM into a rock formation, leaving him unable to participate in the battle.
  • Cry into Chest: Frau Bow is quietly sobbing around Amuro's neck at the end. He gently apologizes for having worried her so much. There is also a blink-and-you-miss-it moment of typical attitudes to this: Sayla looking pleased, Kai looking amused, and Hayato looking dismayed.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Cucuruz Doan makes quick work out of two GMs and a Gunperry investigating the island in the prologue of the movie.
    • The Federation GMs easily destroys Zeon forces in an urban battle until the Southern Cross Corps show up and mop the floor with them in turn with little to no resistance.
  • Defector from Decadence: Doan not only leaves Zeon but takes a working Zaku-II with him.
  • Double Entendre: Even after Sayla establishes Sleggar wasn't asking for anything perverted, she's not exactly thrilled about how letting his GM on the Core Booster seems to come with this.
    Sayla: Quit making it sound weird, okay?
  • The Dreaded:
    • The Southern Cross Corps are greatly feared by the Federation forces as they are one of the best Zeon mobile suit teams and they dish out a one-sided massacre on the GMs with their High Mobility Zakus, easily turning the battle's tide in Zeon's favor.
    • As usual, the Gundam is considered the Zeon forces' greatest terror, with one of the Southern Cross pilots appropriately freaking out after seeing the RX-78 activating in front of him right before getting vaporized by Amuro ramming his beam saber through the cockpit.
  • Foreshadowing: M’Quve's conversation with Admiral Gopp where he quotes Hitler's line "Is Paris burning?" in regards to his intentions with Gopp pointing out that Paris wasn't burned, and M’Quve admitting that one of Hitler's soldiers valued civilization over his orders. It's not exactly how it plays out, but in the end, destruction is also averted.
  • Forgot I Couldn't Swim: As opposed to the original, where Amuro swims alone for exploration, relaxation, and quite well, here he says he knows how to swim, but he's not very good and can't hold his breath long enough to reach the MS underwater, having to be rescued and possibly resuscitated by Marcos. He spends an unnerving few minutes appearing to have drowned before finally coughing up water.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: The walls of Bright's office behind his desk appear to show not only his commission from the Academy but also pictures of him with people who are likely his parents, for the first time ever.
  • Graceful Loser: Even though he was defeated, Dannan is simply happy he fought Doan and called him the greatest before his mobile suit exploded.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: General M’Quve for the film as the one who sent Southern Cross Corps to launch nukes against various Federation held cities.
  • I Regret Nothing: Doan does not regret deserting from Zeon and is willing to kill his former Southern Cross Corps comrades to protect his adopted family and the island from them.
  • It's All Junk: Amuro symbolically hurls Doan’s Zaku-II into the sea, freeing Doan from the war entirely.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • The infamous "Bright Slap" returns as Bright Noa reminisces his use of it on an upset Amuro twice.
    • When Doan's damaged Zaku attempted to throw rocks at the enemy to no effect, it is a nod to his original counterpart who uses rocks as improvised range weaponry.
  • Nuke 'em: Doan’s island is home to an abandoned Zeon base containing a nuclear MIRV missile ready for launch. M’Quve orders the Southern Cross Corps to head to the island and launch the missile at Federation-held territory in hopes of forestalling their coming offensive on Odessa. They succeed in doing so, only for the warheads to prematurely detonate in the Earth’s atmosphere thanks to Doan sabotaging the missile prior to their arrival.
  • Screw the War, We're Partying: Sleggar is mentioned to have gone bar-crawling with his team at the beginning, and while there's nothing to suggest it was against regulations, no one else on White Base is out getting drunk.
  • Was Too Hard on Him: Unlike the original continuity, Bright does wonder about this with regards to how he's treated Amuro — but also concludes it would have been better off if Amuro had already deserted, although presumably not together with the Gundam.
  • The Worf Effect: Kai and Hayato, both experienced pilots by this point, get their asses kicked by the Southern Cross Corps.

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