In November, the Netflix catalog was joined by the anime series 'Scott Pilgrim Takes Off', where the creator of the comic decided that in 2023 he wanted to tell a slightly different story of the relationship between a Canadian slacker and an American...

The Netflix project is essentially the third adaptation of the cult graphic novel 'Scott Pilgrim & His Precious Little Life' by Bryan Lee O'Malley. The previous two saw the light of day in 2010. At the end of July, on the same day as the final volume of the comic, the film 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World', directed by Edgar Wright, premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival. The film, unfortunately, did not recoup its box office but gained the status of an exemplary adaptation and over time became a 'modern classic'.

Literally two weeks after the film's premiere, the game 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game' was released, where you also had to win the heart of the dream girl through a fighting game with exes. Apparently, the creator no longer wanted to tell the same story a third time, so 'Scott Pilgrim Takes Off' (neither anime nor cartoon series) appeared on the 'tudum' streaming service.

What's the plot?

Logically, I should describe here how a slacker named Scott Pilgrim, playing in the not-so-popular rock band Sex Bob-Omb, one day meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers, and tries to start a relationship with her, without first breaking up with 17-year-old schoolgirl Knives Chau. As the story progresses, it turns out that before becoming Ramona's boyfriend, you have to defeat her seven evil exes.

And it seems like everything happens that way in the first episode, until Scott unexpectedly loses to the very first ex-boyfriend, Matthew Patel. Turning into a pile of game coins, Pilgrim shocks everyone around, forcing Ramona to take on the difficult detective investigation of what happened on that fateful evening of Sex Bob-Omb's performance followed by the fight.

Scott Pilgrim vs. Fan Expectations

It would seem that 'Scott Pilgrim Takes Off' could have been an ideal frame-by-frame adaptation of the comic. That's exactly how many imagined it at the time of the announcement. The chosen series format, the drawing straight from the source material, allowing the creators to easily transfer all events to the screen, and the trailers before release supported this legend. But then it turned out that the screenwriters Bryan Lee O'Malley and BenDavid Grabinski decided to deceive viewers' expectations.

Of course, they kept the series format and the signature drawing style on the border between anime and cartoon (just like in the comic, whose author was inspired by both Western and Japanese styles), but this time Ramona herself will have to deal with the exes, because Scott was kicked out of the series. Thus, O'Malley decided to rethink Pilgrim's story through the lens of the years that have passed. When creating the graphic novel, the screenwriter and artist was inspired by his own biography, so now, 13 years later, he decided not to change himself and included elements from his life in the new plot, trying to reflect on what happened in it, while also giving viewers a chance to look at the familiar story from a different angle.

The creators must be given credit, because 'Scott Pilgrim' is made very high quality. Netflix was not afraid to entrust the project's direction to, in essence, a newcomer named Abel Góngora, known only for directing one of the weakest episodes of the first season of the series 'Star Wars: Visions' ('T0-B1'). However, here the animator managed to reveal himself much better than in a galaxy far, far away, although sometimes one might get the impression that the animation lacks dynamics even with constant movement on the screen, but this is hardly a major drawback.

Plus, animation is truly the ideal way to bring the actions in O'Malley's universe to the screen. It perfectly reflects all the absurdity of what is happening, which at the same time does not look ridiculous or out of place. Moreover, the anime series format can afford much more than cinema (no offense to Edgar Wright's excellent adaptation).

Speaking of Wright himself. He also participated in the creation of the series, but only as a producer. And all the main actors from his film returned here to voice their characters, so if you watch in the original, you can hear the voices of Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Brie Larson, Aubrey Plaza, and other guys from the original cast. This is a rather nice bonus, though almost useless for those who watch in translation.

Also, an integral part of every adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's comic is the soundtrack. And here it is also in order. Responsible for the musical accompaniment, Joseph Trapanese and the band Anamanaguchi (they also worked on the music for the game 'Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game') created bright and driving melodies that perfectly emphasize the atmosphere of the universe and complement it.

Scott Pilgrim vs. Drug Addiction

I wouldn't want to spoil too much, but some minimal details are unavoidable when discussing the reimagining. Most of the series turned out to be quite sensible and interesting. The creators updated the narrative to modern times and stuffed the show with meta-jokes. For example, there is an arc where Young Neil (who exudes the vibe of a dim-witted shonen hero) wrote a script for a film with the title of the original graphic novel 'Scott Pilgrim & His Precious Little Life', where the main character defeats the evil exes, and the director of the film is the Briton Edgar Wrong.

By the way, Ramona no longer delivers Amazon products (for obvious reasons). Instead, it's now Netflix. The products in the store where Kim works also belong to the 'tudum' streaming service. Apparently, after the service decided that inserting self-promotion into its own projects is a pretty cool idea.

Evgeny Belousov

Looking for Reflections in Them: Review of the Series 'Black Mirror' (Season 6)

On June 15, a new season of the famous anthology created by Charlie Brooker was released on Netflix. 'Black Mirror' started as a set of science fiction stories about technology and people, but in

Open material

Also, the purely 'Netflix' theme of tolerance fit very well into the plot, which features minorities beloved by the streaming service. Although it certainly hit Wallace hard. He became more liberated, but at the same time almost cruel. In Edgar Wright's version, Kieran Culkin was rather positive and friendly, but here Scott Pilgrim's neighbor is, one might say, toxic, overly arrogant, and almost unpleasant.

And this is despite the fact that for most of the anime series, the authors, through Ramona, try to fight toxicity. The girl travels, meets with exes, and works through old grievances from past relationships, and thanks to this, she looks even cuter and more charming in the eyes of viewers (even though she is already an incredibly cool chick). It's just a pity that she no longer offers guests a choice of tea, but that can be endured, although hardly anyone would refuse a cup of green tea with lemon and honey.

The only thing that can greatly spoil the impression of the show is the ending (the last two episodes). 'Scott Pilgrim' is already a rather absurd work where almost anything can happen: paparazzi-ninjas turn into a swarm of insects, a person fits in the heroine's purse, and vegans make portals, but what happens in the ending is, even by the standards of absurdity, some kind of absurdity.

Unfortunately, to avoid major spoilers, there is no way to tell, but it turned out something like a moralizing drug addiction, filled with meaning and reflection. Such an ending to the story may well cause bewilderment and upset viewers, spoiling the attitude towards the series as a whole. The fact is that the six episodes of 'Scott Pilgrim Takes Off' did not at all imply anything like that, but in the end, the twist turned out to be not entirely successful and appropriate even in such an unusual setting.

What's the bottom line?

The reimagining of the cult comic turned out to be quite interesting and unexpected. Despite the absurd ending that leaves a strange aftertaste, the show 'Scott Pilgrim Takes Off' can boast of gorgeous animation, solid direction, and an excellent soundtrack. The adventures of familiar characters in new circumstances will probably not appeal to everyone, but nevertheless, the project turned out to be decent, even if it deceived fans' expectations. Netflix definitely didn't try in vain.