Season Review: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Season One

Overview:

23-year-old slacker, Scott Pilgrim, may have literally just met the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers. The only problem is that he just might already have a girlfriend. Scott and Ramona experience one magical date, but their baggage catches up with both of them in the form of seven evil ex-boyfriends. The key to Scott and Ramona’s happiness rests in these committed ex-companions’ defeat. It’s a quirky, cathartic coming of age romantic comedy that becomes a thoughtful examination of the road not taken and the very art of adaptation.

Our Take:

Edgar Wright did such an impressive job adapting Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series into 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Wright’s film includes meticulous framing, strict attention to detail, and pulled-from-the-pages dialogue. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off uses this to its advantage as the first episode feels very familiar to anyone who’s seen the movie more than once, only to then blow everything up and begin anew. It’s like a New Game+ mentality to Scott Pilgrim that properly expands its universe.

Every episode of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is visually gorgeous and a lot of fun, but this is a series that continually fights to prove that it deserves to exist in the first place, even if there’s already an excellent Scott Pilgrim adaptation out there by the same team. This existential identity crisis and growing pains are worked into the anime, which is usually when the series is at its best and gets out of its own shadow. Scott Pilgrim’s legacy and other adaptations are Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’s greatest hurdles as it reconciles with what it wants to be and why that’s enough–much like Scott Pilgrim himself.

Right from the end of the first episode, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off proves that it will be unique from its other versions as it takes a radical detour that sends the series down a very different path that will amuse longtime fans and newcomers alike. It feels like a remix of all pre-existing Scott Pilgrim material that tries to use the same basic premise to say something original through new circumstances that involve familiar characters. It’s a controversial approach that likely won’t work for everyone. However, it turns the series into such an unpredictable set of surprises that’s hard not to love. It’s the perfect antidote for anyone who’s memorized the movie and graphic novel frontwards and back.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off also wisely doesn’t hide the fact that Scott is a problematic, flawed character. There are crucial and justified references to his faults in the first episode and this adaptation makes it very clear that Scott’s actions aren’t meant to be praised–especially when the villains get all judgmental on him. Scott Pilgrim, by nature, is a curious exercise in flawed protagonists who hopefully learn something and grow up by the end of their stories. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is careful to not put Scott on too much of a pedestal and his story is just as much one of personal arrested development as it is a quirky romance.

A crucial difference in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off that sets it above the film is that Ramona is more of an actual character, which is a major shift that happens right away. In fact, she’s kind of the main character this time around. This allows Scott Pilgrim Takes Off to get some valuable distance from Scott, who ironically enough has arguably always been the series’ weakest link. There are many episodes where Scott is entirely absent, which would feel impossible in any of its other iterations.

This allows the story to adopt a new female slant that transforms Scott Pilgrim Takes Off into a series about confronting, accepting, and rehabilitating one’s past rather than a manifesto to erase or conquer it, as seen in the graphic novel or feature film. These changes are fundamental to the series’ tonal balance and they’re lacking in Wright’s film. The same is true with Ramona’s Evil Exes (especially Matthew Patel and Gideon Graves), all of whom feel more substantial and get to shine independently of both Ramona and Scott. It’s a huge change to the story’s tone and perspective.

It’s nice to have the film’s entire cast back, all of whom seem to be having a lot of fun here. Mary Elizabeth Winstead genuinely loses herself in her character to make it feel like a real individual and not just an anime counterpart to their live-action performance. Chris Evans, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, and Mae Whitman are other standouts among Winstead who understand the assignment here. Everyone does something special and gets to discover new facets of their characters that weren’t present in the graphic novel or movie. Oddly enough, Michael Cera’s performance comes across as the most detached, but this might be an intentional move that further reflects this series’ choice to turn Scott into more of a concept than a character.

Some characters translate especially well to the anime medium, like Ramona and Knives, the latter of whom has always seemed like an anime character brought to life. One of the best moments in the entire series is a muted sequence where Kim and Knives just jam out together. It’s these tiny character beats of passion and understanding that give Scott Pilgrim Takes Off life. Much like its accompanying graphic novel and movie, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is also a tongue-in-cheek love letter to Toronto. There’s constant nerdy dialogue and visual references to the Canadian city.

One of Scott Pilgrim’s biggest assets are its bombastic battles that have always felt like they were ripped out of anime. The fight sequences in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off are exceptional, otherworldly, and often the highlights of their respective episodes. There are gorgeous explosions of creativity and color that reflect animation studio Science Saru and director Abel Gongora’s best work. Each evil ex-boyfriend flashback sequence showcases a different animation aesthetic that speaks to the characters and tone. It’s a trick that’s also used in the graphic novel and live-action movie, but it’s particularly effective here.

None of the Evil Ex battles phone it in, but several really go above and beyond. There’s an incredible fight sequence between Ramona and Roxie that’s set in a VHS rental store where the dueling duo catapult through different film genres as they collide with videocasettes. It’s clever, creative, and original and brilliantly speaks to the Scott Pilgrim brand that also takes advantage of this new animated medium to tell bigger and bolder jokes than what was previously possible. It’s beautiful and utilizes a very old-fashioned Looney Tunes style of comedy that carries through the season.

Lucas Lee’s skateboard assault on hordes of paparazzi ninja throughout Hollywood backlots is another surreal masterpiece that continually reaches absurd heights only to literally jump the shark with them. Each Evil Ex gets a stunning visual showcase of this magnitude, but Roxie and Lucas’ leave the greatest impressions. The audio is also just as impressive. Amanaguchi’s songs and Joseph Trapanese’s musical scores are a consistent delight, as is the bombastic opening theme, “Bloom,” that kicks off each episode.

Storytelling and visuals aside, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is also just extremely funny. There are some great original jokes that build upon the source material, including an excellent needle drop gag from Envy Adams in the second episode. One of the season’s strongest entries is an extremely meta episode that’s framed like a behind-the-scenes documentary on the Scott Pilgrim film-within-the-show (you know, the one that’s directed by Edgar Wrong and shot by Jan de Pope?). There’s also an extended Virtual Boy gag that nearly broke my brain. 

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is endlessly fun and breezy at over eight episodes, which never overstays its welcome and feels padded. If anything, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off could benefit from even more episodes but its restraint here pays off in the series’ favor. All of the series’ changes cleverly service the medium at hand, just like how Wright’s film did the same with its adaptation from O’Malley’s original graphic novel.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is a risky and original take on its intellectual property that also plays into the ever-popular multiverse/alternate timeline concept that’s currently at an all-time high. There are versions upon versions upon versions of the same character in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, all of which play brilliantly and speak to the odd ethos of Byran Lee O’Malley’s signature series. It’s a love letter to this series’ world, its characters, and the medium of animation. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is the best graphic novel-turned-movie-turned-video game-turned anime that you’ll ever see.