This piece contains spoilers for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
Adapting Bryan Lee O'Malley's beloved comic turned cult hit film for Netflix seems like it would be an easy and relatively safe bet. Scott Pilgrim is a fun, dynamic action story that plays with the tropes and trappings of manga and fighting games, and has an immense inbuilt nostalgia and fanbase not only because it's been 19 years since the comic debuted but also because the cast of the 2010 movie have gone on to become some of the biggest stars in the world. In case you haven't seen Edgar Wright's charmingly stylized film or read the vibrant source material, the story centers around the titular slacker Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) who finds the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and has to fight her seven evil exes before he can date her. Since 2010 the love for the film and comic has only grown, so when the entire cast decided to come back for Netflix's anime version — from the legendary Science SARU studios — it made sense. But what the streamer and creators O'Malley and BenDavid Grabinski managed to keep under wraps is that this wasn't a remake or even a sequel. It's something else entirely.
During the opening 25 minutes of the 28-ish minute first episode, it's easy to believe that you're watching a pretty much shot-for-shot — and beautifully animated — remake of the film and the comics it's based on. And as Scott and his band Sex Bob Bomb take the stage at the Rockit, a local Toronto dive bar, Ramona's first evil ex, Matthew Patel (Satya Sorab Bhabha), attacks. But in a moment that literally made me yell, Scott loses the fight as Matthew knocks him out and turns him into a pile of coins. The astonishing twist immediately reveals that this show isn't what we think it's going to be, and something that the title had been cleverly hinting at all along, Scott Pilgrim is gone and we're left to follow the fallout.
It's a huge swing that, after watching all eight episodes, absolutely pays off. Scott's failure and subsequent disappearance allows the series to spend time with the rest of its ridiculously stacked cast of characters. Highlights include Scott's 17-year-old kinda girlfriend Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), his cool gay roomate Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin), and Sex Bob Bomb's sardonic drummer Kim Pine (Alison Pill), along with Ramona's exes like the power hungry Patel, vegan Clash at Demonhead Drummer bass player Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh) and angsty lesbian hockey player Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman). And, of course, there's Ramona Flowers herself, who gets to be the hero of her own story rather than a trophy to be secured through a series of badass fights. That change speaks to another of the most powerful and likely divisive choices the show makes. Grabinski and O'Malley are constantly in conversation with the viewers and readers who love Scott Pilgrim in all of its forms. It almost feels like an act of anti-fan service that instead respects the audience while challenging it to grow with the story and characters rather than settling into familiarity.
Of course, it's a maturing of the story makes sense — O'Malley published the first volume almost 20 years ago — and also makes the series stand out from other adaptations. This is an additive experience, one that weaves the characters and world that we know with extra context, clarity, and thought. Amid the stunning animation and beautifully directed action that feels like another game changing addition to the Netflix slate, there's a focus on making amends and moving past the mistakes we've made. Whereas the exes in the film were dispatched post-haste, here they live on and Ramona realizes and often apologizes for the impact she had on them. Knives gets to exist outside of Scott's orbit — something that also happened in the comics — but in an entirely new way by realizing she's a proficient musician and, with the help of Kim, joins Sex Bob Bomb herself. Other characters get expanded lives: Todd falls in love, Lucas Lee (Chris Evans) finds his calling as a barista, and Julie (Aubrey Plaza) reconnects with her old lover and villainous mogul and founder of the League of Evil Exes, Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman).
As for Scott himself, the show doesn't just dispense with him, instead playing with some delightfully fun comic book tropes to send him on a journey to the future where he reconsiders and commits to his relationship with Ramona. It brings a depth to their romance that has always been a key part of the draw of the slice-of-life story O'Malley created. That's something the truncated timeline of the film only touched on, but Scott Pilgrim Takes Off embraces it. Anamanaguchi — who also scored the cult Scott Pilgrim vs. The World video game — crafts relaxing beats that create an enjoyably chill soundscape for the quiet moments between battles.
While Hollywood is dealing with what some would call comic book movie fatigue, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is a breath of fresh air. It's a reminder of how vibrant and exciting an adaptation can be when people who love and know the source material are willing to take risks. Pretty much every major studio could learn vital lessons from what Grabinski and O'Malley have done here. Let's just hope that they heed them, and maybe then the future of comic book adaptations will look bright again.
Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.
