Legendary animator and director Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s latest Gundam outing, Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island premiered this weekend in Japanese theaters. Amid fierce competition such as Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick and Hideaki Anno’s Shin Ultraman, official Gundam portal website, Gundam Info, reports from June 3 to June 5 the Cucuruz Doan’s Island film earned 391,483,520 million yen with 195,313 attendees. In weekend box office revenue the film opened at #2, behind Top Gun, but #1 among Japanese-produced films. The official box office data was collected by film ranking website Kogyo Tsushinsha and the film distributor Shochiku.
In comparison to Bandai Namco Filmworks‘ (Sunrise) last major Gundam theatrical release, Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway’s Flash opened with 523,943,800 yen in box office revenue with 259,074 attendees, and ranked first in the Japanese weekend box office against Anno’s Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time and Warner Bros. Pictures’s Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning.
Announced during the 2nd Gundam Conference on September 2021, Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island is a new anime film directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the character designer and chief animation director of the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam series, as well as chief director of the 2015-2018 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin series. The film is a new perspective on the fifteenth episode of the same name from the 0079 series. The film released June 3, 2022 to 185 theaters in Japan.
May 18, Bandai Namco Filmworks(Sunrise) announced a theatrical Blu-ray release for the film. The Blu-rays come in a limited edition version and a standard edition version, priced at 13,000 yen and 5,000 yen respectively, and released June 3, 2022 at all participating theaters.
Story
After enduring the battle at Jaburo, the Earth Federation Forces plan to launch a major counteroffensive to capture Odessa, a major base of Zeon’s Earth Attack forces. The White Base, with Amuro and his fellow crew aboard, head towards Belfast to receive the last resupply before the operation. White Base is then given a mission. The mission is to mop up the remaining Zeon enemies on an uninhabited island, commonly known as the “Island of No Return”. Amuro and his team embark on a search for the remaining agents, but what they see is a group of children and a Zaku that should not be there. After losing his Gundam in a battle, Amuro meets a man who calls himself Cucuruz Doan. Will he be able to uncover the secrets of the island, and will Amuro be able to find the Gundam again and escape safely……?
Cast
- Toru Furuya as Amuro Ray
- Ken Narita as Bright Noa
- Satomi Arai as Mirai Yashima
- Megumi Han as Sayla Mass
- Toshio Furukawa as Kai Shiden
- Hideki Nakanishi as Hayato Kobayashi
- Misato Fukuen as Fraw Bow
- Tomofumi Ikezoe as Sleggar Law
- Shunsuke Takeuchi as Cucuruz Doan
- Atsushi Miyauchi as Egba Atler
- Yoji Ueda as Wald Ren
- Shizuka Ito as Selma Livens
- Koji Yusa as Yun Sanho
- Yū Hayashi as Danan Rashica
- Yuma Uchida as Marcos
- Fu Hirohara as Cara
- Shuichi Ikeda as Char Aznable
Staff
- Planning and Production: Sunrise
- Original Story: Hajime Yatate, Yoshiyuki Tomino
- Director: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
- Assistant Director: Ka Hee Im
- Screenplay: Toshizo Nemoto
- Character Design: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Atsushi Tamura, Tsukasa Kotobuki
- Mechanical Design: Kunio Okawara, Hajime Katoki, Kimitoshi Yamane
- Chief Animation Director: Atsushi Tamura
- Art Director: Yuji Kaneko
- Color Design: Nagisa Abe
- Director of Photography: Takeshi Katsurayama, Ryo Iijima
- CGI Directing: Shuhei Morita
- CGI Director: Morihito Abe
- Editing: Kazuhiro Nii
- Sound Director: Sadayoshi Fujino
- Music: Takayuki Hattori
- Production: Bandai Namco Filmworks
- Theme Song: “Ubugoe” by Hiroko Moriguchi
Source: Gundam Info
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