Kidou Senshi Gundam: Cucuruz Doan no Shima

This is a retelling of Mobile Suit Gundam's missing episode number 15. I did watch the original episode when I watched 0079 and was really curious of what I would get out of this.

Voice acting is amazing, I'm surprised Toru Furuya still can portray young Amuro with no issue, and was really happy to hear Toshio Furukawa as Kai again. Some seiyuus were already here since Origin and Ken Narita has been Bright since Unicorn, but obviously long time fans like me are still gonna miss those who are gone. That said I'm happy to say everyone did a good job and lived up to ... expectations.

The animation's good, even though I know there will be some mixed opinions about the use of CGI for the Mobile Suits and rightfully so, but I was pleased with it. I can say the animation did add way more expressions than that derp smile Doan had in episode 15, everyone was full of emotions and it was nice to see. I have some issues with how Amuro looks like in Yasuhiko's current style (and that I still don't know why he gave him blue eyes now) but the other characters look good.

The characters feel... Like home. It was like coming back home to the White Base after a long time. All of them felt like they used to back in 0079, and Sleggar did add some funny moments despite being an odd change to replace Ryu with him so soon.

The story was well delivered, let me tell you I hated Doan's kids in 0079, but somehow they made them actually endearing and I grew to care about them, and Doan himself... He was always meant to be a Zeon desertor who took care of the kids whose parents he killed, but I felt him more fleshed out here, I feel his story really needed more than 22 minutes and seeing his struggles upclose is something I wasn't expecting since I didn't read the Doan manga.

I'm actually from Spain and seeing the Canary Islands and that they gave most of the kids spanish names was nice to see, but I already knew they would do a great job with the locations since they did the same in Hathaway.

And once again Hiroko Moriguchi delivered, she has always been a nice fit for Gundam songs since Zeta on her debut, and you can tell she enjoys working for the franchise at any chance she gets.

I can say with confidence that I liked this movie way more than episode 15, and if it wasn't for the few inconsistencies with 0079's plot I would replace the original take with this one in the canon.

To anyone who has seen 0079, regardless if you have seen the Doan episode or not, I highly recommend this. If you haven't seen 0079 I would recommend to watch it first or otherwise you won't care about the White Base crew that much. I was really satisfied with what I got at least.

Cucuruz Doan's Island is the retelling of an episode of 0079 that I barely remember. In the process of fleshing out the story, it expands the original episode to nearly two hours.

To be quite honest, I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. I'm not one to enjoy CGI, but it was used pretty effectively here. It doesn't look great in every scene, but when it works it looks absolutely amazing - especially in scenes that are darker. Darker scenes tend to hide a lot of the flaws in CGI, and during these darker scenes it goes from being just okay ... to being really amazing looking. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than a lot of other CGI I see used in anime.

There a lots of little touches that evoke the feelings of the original series - from the soundtrack, to the visuals. They even had some Dezaki styled still frames in there. It's a nice fusion of the classic 70s look and sound, with a more modern presentation.

I was surprised how nostalgic it made me feel. I really missed this cast. Everyone felt in character, especially Amuro. At some point the chronology got switched up, so now Sleggar is part of the White Base crew at this point, even though he didn't show until way later in the original series. He actually fit in really well though, didn't feel out of place at all. I'd say, aside from Amuro that he, Kai and Bright were the best handled out of the main cast.

Overall it wasn't perfect, but it is absolutely enjoyable. If you are a fan of the original series, it is a must watch.

This Doan's Island movie feels, overall, out-of-place. While the episode it is adapting has a self-contained plot, pulling it out of Mobile Suit Gundam and stretching it to the length of a movie has resulted in an empty experience. This movie would have been better off as a shorter episode in an OVA of reimagined 0079 escapades.

Character animation is emotive and interesting, but very exaggerated, just like The Origin OVA's. The writing and characterization is also just as exaggerated.

Mobile Suit combat is done in stylized CGI. This looks pretty good at points but also has awkward moments where you notice the anti-aliasing on faraway models.

In ... regards to the plot, the movie can't seem to decide whether or not it needs to justify itself or not. The stakes are sometimes played up unrealistically or literally raised in comparison to 0079's Episode 15. At other points, it tries to feel like the episode should; a moment of downtime and an exploration of Doan's dilemma. A Zeon pilot deserting to look after war orphans; what does this teach Amuro?

Maybe I'm just pessimistic about modern imaginings of the Universal Century, but I did come in with a positive outlook. I won't say this is a bad movie by any means, just a sort of disjointed thing. It doesn't fit as a replacement for the original Episode 15 and it isn't a good follow-up for the Origin OVA's.