Cucuruz Doan's Island's Novelization Notes - The Southern Cross Corps, Abandonment Trauma, Romanticism and Found Family

This is a review of  the novelization of Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island, written by Kiyoto Takeuchi. This bit of criticism discusses Cucuruz Doan and the Southern Cross Corps, primarily his relationships with Egba Atler and Selma Livens. This writing does contain spoilers, so please keep this in mind before reading ahead. All of my opinions are my own and the book has been read front to back twice over since purchase. 

"A man who has made his living killing people, what's he up to now? No matter how much he tries to make amends with his past, his family is never coming back."

"Are you going to mention the fact that you met me all the way out here?"

Doan read Selma's expression as if he were searching for an answer.

"Why are you on this island? You must know what kind of place this is."

"Mhm-" Doan nodded.

"Get away from this island!" Selma said.

"Thank you, Selma."

"I don't need any courtesy. Next time I see you... I'll... I'll kill you!"

"Goodbye, Selma." Doan said after bowing to her.

Selma boarded the fishing boat, started the engine, and drove away. Doan never looked back. "

The novelization of Cucuruz Doan's Island is a cacophony of intense themes and imagery. Interpersonal relationships gone awry, sensuality, and war games factor into a narrative that goes beyond the glossy exterior that was presented in Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's film adaptation. Penned by Kiyoto Takeuchi, the author of Gundam NT's novelization as well as several anime-based screenplays (Harlock: Space Pirate and Appleseed: Ex Machina), the novel delves deeply into the psychology of Cucuruz Doan and the Southern Cross Corps. While titular characters such as Amuro Ray and even Char Aznable play major roles within the fiber of the novel's world building, its Cucuruz Doan's past, both saintly and sordid, that become the crux Takeuchi's writing.

As one begins to delve past the surface tier elements of the plot (White Base, the frontlines, M'Quve, etc.), the role that Cucuruz facilitates is both proactively positive as well as antagonistic, depending on who he has interacted with. We are first introduced to these mixed notions via Egba Atler.


The prologue at the beginning of the novel begins with Doan, who, while a mercenary, is contracted by Zeon to become a part of their military complex. Its here that he meets Egba, who's also a mercenary. One notion about Doan's abilities as a soldier is that they are recounted by Egba later on as being next to none - Doan is noted to have been an excellent leader, socially adept and, above all, caring for those beneath him. While the both of them receive war contracts via Zeon due to their talent, both soon embark on being involved in the earliest onsets of MS development. Through their close encounters, a friendship naturally blossoms, and its Egba who soon comes to admire Doan as if he were a blood brother. 

Both mercenaries become engrossed in the Zeonic war machine, and a very fast moving one at that - where others fall short or too far behind, both Doan and Atler's talent for accomplishing top secret Zeon issued missions leads to their assignment as experimental Mobile Suit pilot. Their skills set them far ahead of the pack, so much in fact that their specialized MS test pilot unit is assigned as a special corps of its own. The Southern Cross Corps becomes a passion project of Doan's, with Egba as his natural #2.  

Takeuchi's writing about this notion is quick yet succinct; Doan and Egba, both mercenaries, become commissioned soldiers during 0075 when Zeon was more or less a Republic. Takeuchi ties in Origin lore by this information, but also decides to provide a different spin. Both Doan and Egba are given special, top secret missions to enact against the Federation. The Southern Cross Corps soon begins to participate in guerrilla warfare, building off of both Cucuruz and Egba's past military skills, and ultimately participate in the Side 2 invasion. During Operation British, they are assigned to protect a joint unit loaded with the lethal GG gas. While celebrations and ranks are given, lots of assumptions are made about Doan's loyalty. By the time that the Southern Cross Corps was assigned to the Earth Invasion Force, Doan begins to show his true colors, according to Egba. 

(Danan Rashica inquires with Yun Sanho, an original member of the Southern Cross Corps, as to why Egba is violent when Cucuruz is mentioned. Yun explains briefly the history behind their original meeting as well as their history as mercenaries prior.)

 
Drinking in the text, I found Doan to be depicted as, for better words and phrases, extremely emotionally detached. Stoic to a fault, Doan's identity as penned by Takeuchi is tied to an invariable amount of traumatic experiences. Doan is written to have been an orphan who has never met his family and was, more or less, abandoned at a church. Raised without any attachment to family, Doan dreams of having one of his very own as well as reconnecting with those who, more or less, abandoned him. There is a deep secret he harbors, however, that leads Doan to wear a mask in public.

The Doan everyone else sees is a rock to lean on; strong, resolute, and determined, Doan's persona is actually anything but. Calm, meek, and even insecure, Doan shows several times within the novelization that he doesn't feel wanted , and often times seems to put aside the praise he gets from others that are initially closest to him. Most of Doan's praise is garnered through his military achievements, and nobody seems to care about who he truly may be beyond them. The soldier's plight, as usual, is neigh short of his actual being. His sense of self is tied very deeply to the war and yet he years for a life outside of it - the problem arises when he decides to garner that notion, no matter the cost to others. 

(Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's depiction of Cucuruz Doan and Selma Livens, note in hand, which mirrors the chapter in which she approaches him on the island itself. Yasuhiko seems to work from this knowledge, and this is by far the only visual depiction of the scene at his hands.)

Doan deserts from the Earth Invasion Force only six months after he arrives. While many are naturally blindsided by his departure, its the abandonment of his teammates that causes the most hurt. Doan, seen as a brother to the surly Egba, agreed to never abandon him in any circumstance. Egba goes so far as to make Doan pledge in a blood binding-esque pact that they would take one another's lives before anyone else would. Egba exchanges a single bullet with Doan with this in mind, and once Doan makes his departure on Earth, the latter's world comes crumbling down. 

Its not to say that there was more involved here. Egba and Doan's relationship blurs lines between work and brotherhood, and I found Egba at times to be codependent on Doan's identity. Egba seems to deem Doan's success as being based on his masculinity, a topic that frequently rears its head. Its one that at times has very sensual undertones - Doan's depiction is almost near Fabio-like at times. 

Rugged, strong, and attractive, Doan's physical identity is admired by others before his internal sense of self. When one looks as to why Egba respects Doan so much, immensely so even, one wonders if Doan's perceived "betrayal" of the Southern Cross Corps is an illusion made up entirely by Egba.  Doan's "betrayal" within the novel isn't entirely in tandem with his so-called disgust towards Zeon as its later revealed. Egba, who manufactures lies about Doan afterwards, seems more hurt that one of his macho idols disappointed him. As the saying goes: never meet your heroes. 

Thus the feud that transpires between the original Southern Cross Corps is, at most, to be expected. Egba is shown to create an environment once he steps up to the plate of commander of the Southern Cross Corps. As he does so, Takeuchi's writing aligns his feelings as being one of a son taking on the role of a surrogate father in the absence of his very own. While Egba is jaded by Doan's supposed betrayal, he paints him out to be a spineless enemy and a disgrace to the very masculine aura that only he assigned to him. Further reading would prove that this was anything but. 

(Doan, described often as the 'Ghost Zaku', is revealed to be the assailant downing both Federation and Zeon craft on the island of Allegranza. This scene plays out similarly to the original depiction in the film with a few more expletives from Danan - "Damn! What a shitty, boring mission!" he notes before its revealed that Doan may be the one who resides on the island.)

 As a reader, I identified Doan's betrayal as being rooted in deeper psychological traumas. Wald Ren and Yun Sanho, seemingly indifferent, simply want peace and to move on with the mission at hand, while Selma Livens is the least bit resentful. Are they compartmentalizing? Sure, though its through Selma that the mystique surrounding Doan becomes apparent. 

Selma's relationship with Doan is one of the more deeply explored elements of the novel, and one that brings forth the more sensual undertones at play. Selma's resentment in Takeuchi's eyes is faint and near non-existent as she is genuinely in love with Doan. She herself can't find a place to mentally assign him as an enemy, be it to Zeon or even to the Southern Cross Corps. If anything, he isn't her enemy, and she wishes with a ruefully hopeful sense of longing that he will somehow return to her. The caveat, however (as mentioned in the novel), is that desertion from the Zeon army is punishable by firing squad. Doan, even if he returned, would not be able to share or have a life with her or anyone else in the Zeon military. He has done something that cannot be undone, though it doesn't stop Selma from wishing for it.

As noted, the element of romance between Selma and Doan is one of the more important focal points of the plot itself, one that cannot be ignored in any instance. This romance, however, is depicted as being strictly one sided in my opinion. Doan identifies Selma as part of his past, one he wishes to never return to, and has shelved away any semblance of emotion for her. She, like the others, are painted black as they were complicit in several war crimes according to Doan. Doan seems to excuse himself at times from his role in these crimes from time to time, but in doing so ignores his emotions attached to them. Doan also seems to recognize who he is, or was, to Selma, during the early stages of their intimate and working relationship.

Selma's past could be described, at best, as extremely traumatic, both physically and mentally, at the hands of her very own father. Her father, a member of the Zeon military, loses his leg after mishandling a bomb during training. Like some maimed soldiers, he became extremely depressed and violent towards his family. The novel does not take the depiction of Selma's father's alcoholism very lightly - there is heavily implied sexual, mental, and physical abuse enacted against his family to the point where Selma's mother goes clinically insane. Selma, who receives most of her father's punishments, shoots and kills him at the age of 16. 

Selma's life, already wrought with abuse, becomes even more complicated as one reads on. Given that she had killed her father with his own military grade pistol, she is imprisoned and sentenced to 20 years for manslaughter. However, due to the fact that she was a minor at the time, her sentence is reduced to 8 years on the condition that she become a special agent in the Zeon military. The novel highlights that Zeon does, in fact, have a military-prison industrial complex of sorts, though it is only hinted at via Selma's ordeal. 

(Char Aznable encounters the Southern Cross Corps after meeting with M'Quve and notes that he's only heard of them due to the fact that they are extremely good at guerrilla warfare. Danan, who is excited to meet an ace pilot like Char, blabbers about Cucuruz being the true leader of the Corps. Selma, angered by Egba's outburst after the fact, bends Danan's fingers back painfully. 

"The female member (Selma) stood behind him. "You're too talkative," and lightly touched one of Danan's hands with her fingertips and twisted his fingers. The lizard man easily fell over and groaned. "OUCH! It hurts!" Apparently, she knows Chinese martial arts.")

Through the depths of being punished twice over so to speak, Selma is shown to have lived a life of not being perceived as "good enough" - this leads her to become not only an ace pilot, but also a Chinese martial arts expert who can hold her own incredibly. Selma is distrustful of men inherently, and Doan, with his resolute nature, finds a place in her heart as someone who doesn't live to feed their ego. Its Doan that introduces himself to Selma within the novel and invites her to join the exclusive Southern Cross Corps. While their relationship blossoms, one can read further and find that Doan, more or less, is simply sorry for the young Selma as she reminds him of himself at her age.

Further reading then allows for one to put more damning aspects of their relationship into perspective. While its not noted as to if Selma is of age when she does begin to have a romantic relationship with Doan, its not actually put aside as to if she isn't a minor. Selma is forced to join the military should she wish to rid herself of her sentence at the age of 16 - and subsequently after, she and Doan meet. Selma sleeps with Doan only once within the novel, though only after Doan receives some traumatic news of his own, one that soon comes back to haunt Selma, not Doan. 

(From JP fans on Ganndamu's forum - "Giving up everything to protect children is about ego.")

As I read further, Doan's depiction of a kind, charming man is highly romanticized by everyone he seems to encounter - in such a case, its both Egba and Selma who seem to do so the most. Selma "comforts" Doan in this instance via sex, something she is used to doing based on her past, and it ultimately is received differently than before. While Selma feels she has proven her loyalty to Doan in doing so, she assumes that their relationship is actually much more than what Doan has ever made mention of. In fact, the text doesn't implicitly note that Doan actually has strong romantic feelings for Selma in return. Their one noted night of sexual intimacy seems to mean more to Selma than the latter.

Several Japanese readers I've interacted with have a concurring thought about Doan that the film would never dare include - that Doan's sense of "care" for others is tied to some sort of ego stroking. Doan, as I've noted, appears extremely traumatized to me as a reader. I can't personally look away from his demeanor given that his actions, as depicted in the novel, are done with a very selfish undertone. I have mentioned several times over than Doan is romanticized by most that know him, though Doan seems to romanticize his own sense of a "perfect family". Those who don't agree to this or fit into a specific mold are, for better or worse, done away with. 


Doan seems to occupy a space of Shared Fantasy, or the notion that those in his environment are or will be persuaded to follow his own ideals. Just as Masahiro Kurata noted in his editorial in the August 2022 issue of Gundam Ace, the depiction of 0079's Cucuruz is bound up within an idealistic view of paradise in the midst of an active war - Kiyoto Takeuchi's Doan is, for all things considered, no different. Some could say that Takeuchi's Doan is worse in regards to his romanticism. 

"(Doan) himself understands that "life on the island is a kind of escape" but also realizes that he himself cannot change the course of the war alone. He just deals with each case scenario (both Zeon and Federation 'invaders') and waits for the situation to end one day."

In comparison to the film and the original 0079 episode, Doan is shown to more or less "collect" war orphans from all around the area where he was stationed as he wishes to start his own "family" of sorts. Many of these orphans come from several other places, and the atrocities they experienced first hand are depicted as being quite gruesome. Be it having their parents blown away in front of them or scraping away the flesh of an eviscerated friend from their own bodies, the children Doan rescues are just as traumatized as he is. A big change against the film and TV versions is that Doan is not implicitly stated to have killed any of these children's parents directly. While Doan takes responsibility for the children, his own idealistic approach to being "under the radar" is still present, though for different reasons.

Doan is, unfortunately, depicted as living out a life he has both dreamed about and has always "known" - Doan, a war orphan as well, was cared for in a haphazard manner and dreams of having his own family back. When he does learn about the horrific truth about his own family, he then more or less snaps and aims to regain this for himself. Zeon's militaristic system is simply a part of it, though not the entirety as depicted in the film. 

While Doan's care is evident for the children he does save, I couldn't help but feel as if Doan seemed, in some regard, to use the children as a means of mental escape. As I saw it, if Doan helped the children who were caught up in the war machine he was once a part of, he could somehow 1) make his own family and 2) live in a realm of 'peace'. Doan of the novel, now resolute in his new lease on life, operates through an undercurrent of staunch idealism. 

(Doan, as described by Yun Sanho to Danan Rashica, as being a war orphan and a mercenary alongside Egba Atler. Doan's inclusion in Zeon's military-industrial complex is shown via his involvement in early MS testing. With that in mind, its alluded to in further pages that Cucuruz possibly worked at the 'Dark Colony', tying in Origin lore.)

Doan could be perceived as selfish. Doan could also be perceived as being simply tired of the life he lead prior. His individuality is cherished and championed so to speak, though through very pervasive means of actualization. Doan defends the children and the island as any "invader", good or bad, is seen as a means of disrupting his very organized bubble. Doan interacts with outsiders only when he wishes to, often under the umbrella of gathering supplies when needed, though the children seem to understand that anyone who comes into the family dynamic that Doan has so strongly fostered without his approval is an outsider. 

The reality of Doan's desertion circles back several times to an echo chamber of abandonment. Selma, who had wanted to start a family with Doan, sees that he has abandoned her and the others of the Southern Cross Corps to raise his very own. Selma, a child from an abusive household, feels her wounds be reopened viscerally. However, Selma cannot bring herself to actually hate Doan - she simply hates that he has so openly decided to not include her. Selma notes that she will, in fact, kill Doan should they cross paths, though these efforts are met with half truths. 

The Southern Cross Corps, deemed as necessary within Zeon military operations, were hand selected by Doan, who garnered a sense of trust via a very familial dynamic - once he leaves, Takeuchi frames Doan's absence as that of a father leaving his young to raise another family elsewhere. A palpable comparison, Doan's connection to family, found or established, is disjointed and brimming with dodgy attachment issues. Selma, while perceivably distraught by Doan's choices, ultimately leaves him to his devices. 

This is expounded on further, though ultimately Doan is honed in on as an enemy by the others. The team meets their fate in different manners than depicted in the film, even more violently so, though Cucuruz ultimately does, to an extent, get what he wanted in the end - the mysticism behind his person, however, changes, and his true nature still remains very much bound to his own unhealed childhood. Doan of the novel, in my opinion, never genuinely escapes his past, and is rather apathetic. 

As the founder of the Southern Cross Corps, Doan's reality is tied to a dream he never would truly obtain by Takeuchi's text, and he ultimately disjoints the lives of those involved within his inceptions of "family". Overall, a very immersive read, but one that paints a picture, melancholically so, of deep rooted, unresolved trauma.