Helmed by Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski and produced by Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off follows Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) as he meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but learns he must defeat her seven evil exes in order to date her. But then things get even more complicated when an unexpected turn of events changes everything.
The Scott Pilgrim comic series was first adapted by Edgar Wright back in 2010 and it took the world by storm with its star-studded cast, hilarious comedy, and ambitiously creative style. For years though it had been rumored that a unique anime adaptation of Scott Pilgrim was secretly in the works with the original Edgar Wright picked cast set to return, and sure enough the rumors were proven true with the reveal of this series.
But was this anime adaptation worth the 13-year-long wait? I can definitely say it was but it was not what I expected at all. Rather than being a shot-for-shot remake of the film adaptation or the comic series, this adaptation completely flips the script, taking a completely wild and ambitious approach to the story we know in a new format that I loved from start to finish. It acts as a further exploration of the Scott Pilgrim universe that has its own crazy twists and turns, as well as giving you a whole new perspective on various characters.
As I mentioned, everyone from the Edgar Wright film cast returns as their respective characters and they all do an amazing job playing them again. But the main difference here is that Michael Cera’s Scott Pilgrim is not the central character of this series. I won’t get into any spoilers but let’s just say that while Scott Pilgrim is still a major part of this story it is actually the rest of the characters who take center stage; they’re more fleshed out in comparison to the film, leading to the cast being able to do much more with their roles this time around.
A majority of this series is actually told through the perspective of Ramona Flowers, reprised wonderfully by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and I absolutely loved her character in this series and the journey she goes on. A lot more of her past with her exes comes forward, showing that, similar to Scott, she is a flawed individual herself who has made mistakes but is now choosing to correct them in any way she can. This was a new take on the character that I did not see coming but I loved it and I dare say I actually prefer this version of Ramona compared to the film version.
She is not the only character that gets fleshed out though because the League of Evil Exes are also massively explored individually; any past views people have had on them from the film will radically change after watching this series. We get to see new sides of the exes come to the surface and each one of the returning cast members has an absolute blast with getting to take these characters in completely new directions.
The most notable standouts for me were Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), Lucas Lee (Christine Evans), Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), Roxie Richter (Mae Whitman), and Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman) who were each given fantastic performances by their respective cast members and were also surprisingly humanized in this story, making them more than the douchey villains that they were portrayed as in the film.
The returning supporting cast members are just as awesome as they were from the film, and it was nice to see certain supporting characters that were underutilized in the film have more of a role in this story, including Julie Powers (Aubrey Plaza), Kim Pine (Alison Pill), Young Neil (Johnny Simmons) Envy Adams (Brie Larson) and Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin). I loved how this series takes the time to explore these characters in ways that the film never really did and gives them time to shine in brilliant ways that I hugely enjoyed.
Like the film, this series is fast-paced but with the new perspective, it does take a bit more time to breathe and explain things about the characters and lore of the Scott Pilgrim world that I found myself engaged in all the way through. Similar themes from the film get explored here too but are done so in new ways. There were so many crazy twists and turns this series throws in that are handled extremely well, matching the style and energy of the previous adaptation but also taking things a step further with a new medium.
Another thing that is handled extremely well is the truly outlandish humor that feels very much like Edgar Wright’s style from the film, but this series does kick things up a notch with some extremely meta humor and even makes some of it more adult-aimed with the help of the TV-MA rating. For example, the hilarious bleeped cursing gag from the film returns in this series but now it has been lightly uncensored, making you hear the words they are saying, and they make a number of the characters have foul mouths instead of just Julia Powers.
But this series thankfully doesn’t heavily rely on older jokes of the past and instead presents extremely funny and entirely new ones. This series even goes as far as to make fun of various elements of the original film which I found to be very clever, but I could see some people not getting it if they have not seen the original film. This does bring up one thing that I know some people are wondering: do you need to see Scott Pilgrim vs the World in order to watch this series? The answer is yes, not only because that film is so good, but because it will definitely help you understand what is going on in this series, both with the story and the humor. This series does do a solid job recapping certain events of the film but I feel watching them together back to back provides the best possible experience.
This series combines the narrative and visual style of Edgar Wright’s film with the comic book feel of the original story and 80s anime animation, resulting in a series that looks absolutely beautiful and stunning with every single frame. So many vibrant colors and locations just leap off the screen giving it a distinct visual style that is incredibly fitting for the world of Scott Pilgrim, as well as breaking the limits that had held back the live-action film, especially when it comes to the action.
Some absolutely insane action sequences are very different from the film and each of them becomes even crazier than the last, going in directions I never expected but absolutely loved. I have to give huge props to the animation team for really going all out with this series in terms of delivering some serious quality 2D animation, especially during a time when 3D animation dominates the market.
This series also features its own unique, kick-ass soundtrack featuring all new original songs that are different from the film but still fitting for the Scott Pilgrim universe. Some definite headbangers in this series made me want to get the soundtrack for myself and I love that the soundtrack plays such a huge part in the story rather than be treated as a gratuitous add-on.
Overall, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is an awesome series that is worth the wait and took me by surprise with its ambitious yet solid direction. If you loved the Scott Pilgrim vs the World then you are pretty much guaranteed to love this series and I encourage you to see it. I am going to give Scott Pilgrim Takes Off an A = 97.
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