To the casual observer, "Gundam" probably looks like a neat series about giant robots. But the central theme of "Gundam" depicts the terrible ramifications of war. Of course, the original "Mobile Suit Gundam" anime rode with this theme at its heart, but its depictions, as heart-wrenching as some episodes could get, never felt as brutal as later entries. A significant part of this is simply due to production limitations. As "Mobile Suit Gundam" original animator Yoshikazu Yasuhiko noted in the NHK "Making Gundam" documentary (via YouTube), as ambitious as the storyboards were for "Mobile Suit Gundam," the staff had to cut back and only focus on key scenes. And in an interview with Forbes, Yasuhiko noted that the story elements in "Mobile Suit Gundam" were not at their absolute best.
Fortunately, the original anime episode "Cucuruz Doan's Island" has gotten the updated treatment just like its modern siblings. The movie expands the plot of the initial episode and digs deeper into the original anime's themes, much like current entries. Whether through scenes featuring the numerous war orphans or Amuro's heartbreaking flashback of his mother, we get the chance to witness just how terrible war within the "Mobile Suit Gundam" universe can be in this film. Yasuhiko may be the one to thank, as he's been expanding and amending the original plot of "Mobile Suit Gundam" since 2001 with his work on the "Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin" manga (via Forbes). Although it never gets as dark as a movie like "Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway," it's clear that "Cucuruz Doan's Island" received a level of maturity that feels more in line with the franchise's latest.
