When Bryan Lee O’Malley created Scott Pilgrim in the early ‘00s, it was picked up by anindependent book publisher and released in six black and white volumes. Twenty years later,Scott Pilgrim has been adapted into multiple formats including a live-action movie, a videogame, and reprinted countless times. It’s a surprisingly tenacious property, now expanding itsstory to a new medium, Japanese Anime. “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” is a natural evolution of thegraphic novel, as O’Malley was influenced by Japanese Anime when he started penning thepages of Scott Pilgrim all those years ago. What makes this adaptation extra special is that thecast of the live-action film is returning to reprise their roles from the major characters likeMichael Cera as Scott and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona, to the smaller parts likeKieran Culkin as Wallace Wells and Brie Larson as Envy Adams. Surprisingly, this all-staradaptation isn’t solely a remake, but a clever and exciting update for Scott, Ramona, and all theevil exes.
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Scott Pilgrim is a jobless young adult living in Toronto. He mooches off of his generous gayroommate Wallace Wells, is casually dating teenager Knives Chou (Ellen Wong), and performsin the local band Sex Bom-omb. While sleeping he dreams of a young woman making deliverieson roller skates. Curiously, while attending a party later that day, Scott meets Ramona Flowers,the same woman who had appeared in his dreams. He quickly discovers to date Ramona, he’sgoing to have to defeat all the members of the League of Evil Exes – a collective of Ramona’sex-lovers who have vowed to defeat whoever tries to date their precious Ramona.
Given the many adaptations of Scott Pilgrim, it’s hard to imagine how O’Malley justified anotherversion of this story. Scott has always seemed kind of shallow, deciding to fight through all ofthese evil exes solely because he’s fallen for Ramona. A lot of that combat and theconfrontations are taken for laughs, but that just emphasizes how immature he is. Most of theevil exes fit into neat stereotypes – whether it’s the high school fling, the jock, or the rich CEO,never really exploring what makes each of those characters tick. Ramona’s part in this storyexists solely as a woman who needs saving. It all worked within the confines of the live-actionmovie, but these eight episodes afford more space to develop these characters.
Writers O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski have made extensive changes to the original story. Itreflects O’Malley’s growth and maturity in the twenty years since he wrote the graphic novels,giving more depth to Scott’s story. “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” is not a retelling of the story fansare familiar with, but a reimaging of that material. There’s even some wiggle room to expand theshow into another season. With that being said, it’s not the best place to start for newcomers toScott Pilgrim. There’s an expectation that audiences will be versed in Scott’s previous adventureto get the most out of this adaptation.
Handling the animation is the anime studio Science Saru, whose co-founders Masaaki Yuasaand Eunyoung Choi have created acclaimed features such as “The Night is Short, Walk onGirl” and “Inu-oh,” and genre-defining masterpieces like “Ping Pong The Animation” and“Devilman Crybaby.” Handling the director duties for “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” is AbelGongora, who previously worked on a “Star Wars Visions” short. Science Saru is known fortheir elongated figures and expressive characters, creating a lot of emotional depth in their art.Given how bombastic some of the sequences can be, there’s no better marriage of content andcreator than Scott Pilgrim and Science Saru. More familiar faces have returned to contribute tothe soundtrack for “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off,” as the chiptune artists Anamanaguchi havesupplied some of their tracks from the video game, as well as, some new compositions to theanime.
One of the biggest selling points of the anime comes with the return of the live-action movievoice cast. The aforementioned stars like Cera and Winstead came back for their leading roles,but it’s surprising just how many of the actors were interested in contributing to the project.Edgar Wright’s movie showcased an incredible cast of stars, and everyone is back from ChrisEvans, Anna Kendrick, and Aubrey Plaza, to even Jason Schwartzman as the evil CEOGideon Graves. There are even a few voice-over cameos that fans will have to spot. This is adream list of talent for the anime and certainly adds to the quality of the series.
The Scott Pilgrim franchise is known for its references to pop culture and video games and thatcontinues throughout this anime adaptation with callouts to “Dragon Ball Z,” “Avatar: The LastAirbender,” “Street Fighter,” “Tony Hawk Pro Skater,” “Mortal Kombat,” and others. Giventhe pedigree of Science Saru, the expectation is that the fight sequences would be among thestandout aspects of this adaptation, but unfortunately, they fall flat. Despite each episodecontaining one, the combat feels reminiscent of other properties, lacking originality with onesuch sequence coming across as a carbon copy of “The Matrix.” This recycled materialstretches beyond the fighting sequences and even into some of the new plot elements, making“Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” formulaic in some aspects.
For a series that has been adapted so many times, it’s refreshing to see a new take on thematerial. Despite some issues regarding the recycled plot elements, “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off”has assembled a dream team of collaborators with Science Saru, Anamanaguchi, and theoriginal voice cast of the live-action movie to bring this Japanese Anime to life. O’Malley wasinfluenced by Japanese Anime when he first wrote the series and perhaps he imagined theseries in this format all along. These past twenty years have given O’Malley a new perspectiveon his hit series, which has now evolved to a whole new level. [B+]