“Scott Pilgrim Takes Off,” written and produced by Ryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski, is a TV-14 rated animated series that combines elements of action, comedy, romance and adventure. The series was released Nov. 17, and is based off the 2004 Scott Pilgrim graphic novels written by O’Malley.
The series set in Toronto, Canada starts out following indie band bassist, Scott Pilgrim, who falls in love with Ramona Flowers, a mysterious girl who uses the subspace highway in Scott’s head. The subspace highway is a reality bending highway used for transportation, which Ramona uses to conveniently make deliveries. This attracts Ramona’s league of seven evil exes. Things take a major turn when Scott is seemingly punched to death by Ramona’s first evil ex, Matthew Patel. However, Ramona knows he’s not truly dead, and throughout the show we follow Ramona as she solves the mystery of what happened to Scott Pilgrim.
The show had many highlights, but the main ones for me were the animation style, casting and the portrayal of the characters. The art style is bright, fun, colorful and is an amazing homage to the original comic style. I also appreciated how dynamic it was. The cast was phenomenal, and the fact that they were able to bring back the entire main cast from the 2010 movie made watching the movie way more fun and exciting to watch. I like how the characters were recognizable and stayed true to the source material, while also doing something fun and unique. In all the battles with the evil exes, we still see the wildness from the original but see a more in-depth perspective of the exes’ backstories and personalities.
As fantastic as the show was, there was one thing that made me a little sad, that being how little we saw of the Katayanagi twins. Throughout the franchise, the twins have always been a mystery, and although we did get some new scenes with them, I really wish we got to learn more about their personalities, interests, and backstories.
If you’re a big fan of comedy, romance or action, I’d highly recommend you watch this show. It’s so full of life and personality and takes its’ unique concept and storyline to the next level. If you’d like to check it out, you can find it, as well as the 2010 live action version, “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” on Netflix.
