The Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island animated film will debut in 2022. The announcement comes via the film’s official Twitter account.
The announcement also included the film’s first teaser trailer.
映画『機動戦士ガンダム ククルス・ドアンの島』は、
2022年初夏公開！＼超特報映像解禁／
《ガンダム、再び大地に立つ————》
劇場版『機動戦士ガンダムⅢ めぐりあい宇宙』から40年、RX-78-02 ガンダムとアムロの物語がスクリーンに舞い戻る！#ククルス・ドアンの島 pic.twitter.com/Lfnyw9Cen1
— 機動戦士ガンダム ククルス・ドアンの島 (@g_cucuruzdoan) December 20, 2021
The trailer shows off images of the White Base spaceship, as well as the original RX-78-02 Gundam and its pilot, Mobile Suit Gundam protagonist Amuro Ray. The tweet also promotes Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island as “the first theatrical story about Amuro and the Gundam in 40 years, since 1982’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space“. It will be directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, creator of the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin manga and director of its OVA adaptation. Though the film shows off Amuro Ray, the voice cast is as yet unconfirmed.
Check out the key visual from the film’s official website.
The film is based on “Cucuruz Doan’s Island”, the 15th episode in the original 1979 TV broadcast of Mobile Suit Gundam. In it, Amuro Ray is stranded on a remote island after an encounter with Cucuruz Doan, a defector from the Zeon military. At the request of Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino himself, the episode was excised from English-language releases of the series. as from the original English-language release of Mobile Suit Gundam. The exact reason why was not explained, but the most likely reasons are related to the “off-model” quality of several of its sequences. In an interview Yasuhiko revealed that the episode had been “completely outsourced” to an outside studio, which may have contributed to its production issues.
“Cucuruz Doan’s Island” was later expanded and adapted by Junji Ono into a 5-volume manga spinoff of the Gundam: The Origin. The series explored the activities of Cucuruz Doan’s original Zeon unit, the Y-02 Development and Training Team. It showed encounters and operations prior to and following Doan’s desertion.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island will debut in Japan in 2022.
