Scott Pilgrim has it all.
He’s in a band. He’s dating a
High School Girl…actually he doesn’t have much at all. But everything changes when he meets the
literal girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers.
Sparks instantly fly but wanting to hook up with Ramona puts a huge
target on Scott’s back. A league of
Ramona’s jaded Ex’s had united to destroy anyone who might have a chance with
her. To win her heart, Scott must battle
seven extremely powerful foes. Is Ramona
worth the fight or is Scott Pilgrim’s precious little life about to collapse in
on itself?
Welcome Dear Readers to the start of 2024 and I’m happy
to report that the first series I’m kicking things off with is off to a helluva
good start.
You’d think Scott Pilgrim
would have a greater presence in pop culture with its numerous references to
nerd culture; from Anime and Manga to Video Games.
Sadly the incredible comic and it’s 2010
movie adaptation “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” have remained in Cult Classic
status (the Movie Video Game too for that matter).
Me personally, I love the original comic and
think the movie was fine (I feel like whatever issues I have with it can be
covered in a potential future review).
I
love the art style and energy Bryan Lee O’Malley infused in his Canada set
fantasy about a slacker who has to fight for the woman of his dreams and sort
out his own place in the world.
An
animated series has been long overdue and Netflix has decided to be the ones to
undertake that challenge.
And holy crap
they actually pulled it off…but not in the way you’d expect.
While things start off relatively close to the Comic and
Movie, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off quickly caught me off guard by pulling a massive
cliffhanger at the end of the first episode and for some that might be a major
detractor.
For a show titled “Scott
Pilgrim Takes Off” there’s surprisingly little Scott Pilgrim after the first
episode.
He makes sporadic appearances
in various forms between Episodes 2 and 4 but otherwise, he’s just spoken of
but never seen.
News flash: THIS ISNT A
NEGATIVE. In fact it’s a refreshing positive.
Sure it would be easy to just adapt the comic panel for panel with some
creative splicing of bits from the Movie.
It’s a whole other thing to try a brand new and fresh take on an
established tale.
Hats off to Bryan Lee
O’Malley for Co-Writing this brand new vision of his cult classic.
I mean if you’re going to go in a new
direction with a property, it’s not a bad idea to have the creator directly
involved to make sure things go smoothly.
In lew of an abundance of Scott Pilgrim, Scott Pilgrim
Takes Off instead focuses on the world around Scott Pilgrim, working to flesh
out its co-lead, Ramona Flowers, and his massive supporting cast.
Ramona is the basically the lead of the show
at this point, working as a detective to find her missing not boyfriend.
Beyond her, we also get to go deeper into the
assembled egos that are the League of Evil Exes.
One of the many mind blowingly obvious
changes in this new take is seeing the 7 Ex’s together in one place, something
that never happened in either the comic or the movie.
The dynamic between them works as well as it
should and, like so much else here, new possibilities are born from them,
assuring viewers this isnt going to be the story they’ve read before.
In fact, the expanded focus on the Ex’s
proves this could be a superior take on the original story (possibly
blasphemous statement I know but hear me out).
The latter half of this first half of the series works wonders fleshing
out Ramona’s past lovers, not necessarily in extremely deep detail but enough
that you do feel bad for them when you learn why and how Ramona left them.
Ramona may be the hottest girl on the planet
but she’s left a lot of damage in her wake.
One major positive of shifting the spotlight to Ramona is getting to see
her actively work to clean up the mess she left behind, bettering herself and
possibly steering her former flings down better paths.
I’ll admit, I was a little concerned about the
presentation of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off when I saw the trailers but I was an
idiot to doubt it.
Everything moves more
than just smoothly, it’s running at top speed and never slowing down, nor
staying the same all the time.
Normally
that might cause a bit of a headache but the exaggeration in awkward social
situations and the amazing camera work during action scenes is done so well its
both staggering and easy to follow.
The
art only gains even greater strength thanks to a need to download immediately
soundtrack from Anamanaguchi (who also did the music for the Scott Pilgrim
Video Game).
The JRock tunes and 8 bit
ditties made me feel like I was listening to the soundtrack of FLCL again for
the first time (seriously, I’ve been listening to at least one track a day from
this OST).
Some of the best moments of
this opening half come from some of the softer tracks that play during pivotal
character backstories that help you feel for who theyre played for and I was
nearly moved to tears a few times…in a Scott Pilgrim Anime…damn that’s
incredible.
In fact, the biggest praise
I can give Studio Science Saru and Anamanaguchi on their work here is how much
they make Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’s energy feel like my all time favorite
Anime, FLCL.
Seriously, four episodes in
and how is this show more FLCL than any of the FLCL sequels (btw I haven’t
forgotten about FLCL Grunge and FLCL Shoekaze.
Against my better judgement, I’ll get to them in a couple of
months).
I cant close out this first review without addressing one
of the biggest draws of the show: the fact that the entire cast from the 2010
movie is back reprising their roles; including Michael Cera as Scott, Mary
Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona, Kieran Culkin as Wallace and Jason Schwartzman as
Gideon.
While Scott Pilgrim vs. The
World wasn’t anyones big debut, the cast has gone onto huge things like Chris
Evans and Brie Larson joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Captain’s
America and Marvel respectively.
Getting
the entire band back together couldn’t have been easy but I feel like it might
have to do with Edgar Wright (Director of the Movie) being an Executive
Producer and many speaking quite fondly of the fun they had working on the
Scott Pilgrim Movie.
It’s also a chance
for the cast to do more with their characters than they could in the original
films just under two hour runtime.
The writing
certainly helps do wonders but the performances are even stronger than
before.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead certainly
deserves props for being able to imbue Ramona with more likeability than I
think she had in her live action version.
Really though, everyone slips back into their roles easily, like they’ve
been waiting on the call for this project for over 13 years.
Jeez, I don’t think I can think of a single negative
thought about this premiere, it’s freaking awesome.
The art, the music, the energy, the writing,
the change in direction, the performances.
As much as I love the original Scott Pilgrim comic, THIS feels like the
Scott Pilgrim experience we’ve all been waiting for.
Buuut there in runs the risk that I’ve hyped
up this first half too much and the back half may not deliver.
NO I shall remain positive.
It’s a new year and I get the feeling Scott
Pilgrim’s greatest triumph is yet to come…whenever he decides to show up
again.
Til then, Ramona’s got this and I
cant wait til Next Monday when we look at Part 2 of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off,
right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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