Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin re-imagines the narrative that visionary anime creator Yoshiyuki Tomino brought forth in 1979’s Mobile Suit Gundam. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s manga not only adapts the main story from the anime, but it also fills in gaps and adds meaningful new content. Beloved characters such as Amuro Ray, Sayla Mass, and Char Aznable have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity alongside this manga’s ten-year serialization.
One notable story from the anime that escaped adaptation was Episode 15, "Cucuruz Doan's Island". This infamous episode is known by fans as the "banned episode" and has never seen official release in North America or many other regions. It depicts the story of a Zeon defector's encounter with the main Gundam cast, which is an intriguing setup. However, the episode evidently failed to live up to Tomino's standards, and he is personally responsible for removing it from releases. However, this year Cucuruz Doan has returned to the Gundam franchise at the helm of a feature anime adaptation of the episode: Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island.
The Origin began as a mostly-faithful adaptation of the story of Mobile Suit Gundam. Yasuhiko, the original series chief animation director and character designer, reshuffled certain events and added more mature language and imagery since he was no longer confined by television broadcast standards. This maturity allows The Origin to fit in more closely with darker sequel projects such as Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Char's Counterattack. Though there is one "Extra" chapter early on that depicts events not seen in the original series, it isn't until after the Jaburo storyline that The Origin begins significantly diverging from the events of the series.
The most notable addition is an extended backstory sequence detailing the lives of many characters before the events of the series. This extensive storyline was later adapted by Yasuhiko himself into a six-episode theatrical OVA series. However, Cucuruz Doan and his customized Zaku remained off-page despite the narrative moving past the point where his story took place. It is worth noting that a manga spinoff does exist; Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin MSD: Cucuruz Doan's Island serves as a prequel to the original episode. However, this manga was written by a separate author and, like Episode 15 of Gundam, has not been released in North America. It was created without Yasuhiko's involvement and therefore was not used as a resource in the creation of the film.
After he completed the original backstory arc, Yasuhiko began diverging more frequently from the source material. This includes further story additions including two epilogue chapters featuring Amuro and Sayla and an additional prequel chapter featuring the family of Zeon Zum Deikun, filling in story gaps and illuminating moments left unseen by other Gundam projects. This divergence also manifested as direct changes to the main story of the anime. Yasuhiko wove his added backstories in with the narrative, leading certain characters to act differently than they would have without the context of their motives. Yasuhiko remains respectful of Tomino's vision, but he also crafts the story into his own distinct version; with his additional content, it could almost be considered the definitive way to experience the story. As minor of a story as it is, the omission of Cucuruz Doan's sequence is one of the few things preventing this adaptation from being complete.
Much like for The Origin OVA series, Yasuhiko served as director and character designer for the Cucuruz Doan's Island film. The film strongly resembles the aesthetic of the OVAs largely because of his influence, making any arguments for an affiliation between the two works that much stronger. Given that the original story was confined to a television-length episode of Mobile Suit Gundam, Yasuhiko and the film's writing contributors had to create their supplementary story material during the course of the production rather than having an expansive manga to draw upon. However, Cucuruz Doan's Island fits neatly into The Origin's narrative as a side story much like how the original episode functions for those lucky enough to have seen it.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island may lack Yasuhiko's manga source material, but considering that any plot changes in the film come directly from him, he can be considered his own source. As such, Cucuruz Doan's Island aesthetically meets the standards of The Origin and fulfills the same duty of expanding on and refining the events of the original anime series. The film was created with the original series' narrative in mind, but since it occurs at a point in the story before any major diversions, it can safely fit into the narrative of The Origin as well. For anime-only viewers, The Origin OVA only depicts events that occur before the original series and therefore does not significantly contradict the rest of the anime. Therefore, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's Gundam magnum opus, The Origin, can finally be considered comprehensive due to the release of Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island.