Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island
After a covert mission goes wrong, Mobile Suit pilot Amuro Ray and his comrades are stranded on a remote island. The battalion was sent to a land called the Island of No Return to clear off any enemy forces, only to find a group of children and an enemy mecha attack. Now Amuro must find a way for them all to escape this mysterious land, but not before meeting a strange man—Cucuruz Doan.
- Year: 2022
- Country: Japan
- Genre: Animation, Drama, Science Fiction, Action
- Studio: Bandai Namco Filmworks, Shochiku, SUNRISE
- Keyword: desertion, remake, mecha, giant robot, alternate history, orphan, alternate version, anime, real robot, canary islands, found family, based on tv series, gundam
- Director: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
- Cast: Toru Furuya, Shunsuke Takeuchi, Ken Narita, Toshio Furukawa, Megumi Han, Hideki Nakanishi
"White Base" pilot "Amuro" is injured after a conflict on the "Island of No Return". He awakens to discover that he is being cared for by a group of youngsters led by "Doan" and after he helps them fix their water supply, is more warmly welcomed into this slightly sceptical group. Soon, though, aircraft arrive carrying "Zeon" robots and it's only then that we realise that "Doan" has a past - and together with the young "Amuro" they must arm themselves and strive to defeat their attackers. I did quite enjoy this but the story (based on characters from the 1979 television series) takes far too long to get going, it relies heavily on us already understanding the battle context of the characterisations, and I found the standard of animation here a bit limited. The ending hasn't really the least jeopardy to it, and the presence of the youngsters on their island dragged what pace there was down quite effectively. That said, it does move along well enough offering us messages about the value of teamwork, loyalty etc. but I just felt it was all just too lacking of any substantial - and interesting - narrative.