Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Stream

Hello again, friend of a friend. It’s been long gestating, but it’s finally here. The Scott Pilgrim anime Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is out now on Netflix, reuniting the original cast of Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010).  Whether you loved or hated Wright’s film version, there’s a lot to love about Takes Off.

Beginning with bringing back the entire film cast, which is a feat in itself considering the career trajectories of the likes of Chris Evans, Brie Larson, and Aubrey Plaza, there’s an odd continuity and comforting familiarity from the film adaptation. That’s mostly where the similarities end.

The series kicks off the same as the film, with Scott (voiced by Michael Cera) dreaming of a girl with colorful hair and rollerblades — the enigmatic Ramona Flowers (voiced by Mary Elizabeth Winstead). He runs into her at a party, he becomes obsessed, and stalks her until they go on a spark-igniting date.

This catches the attention of Ramona’s many exes, whom she all left on bad terms. They challenge Scott to a fight to the death for the chance at Ramona’s heart. Here’s where the series diverges. Scott loses the first fight.

Takes Off is a direct reckoning for those who took away the wrong messages from Vs. the World. Scott comes off as way too much of a hero in the film, smoothing over his many flaws with deadpan one-liners and eye-popping visuals. The film was too cool for its own good, making it easy for audiences to miss that Scott’s friend group suffers for his lack of self-awareness.

Here is a guy in arrested development, mooching off friends, shirking responsibilities, and treating romance like sport or a video game, with little regard for anything but his own wants. Scott dating a 17-year-old in the original mostly served as an opportunity for his friends to dig at him and the movie played it for laughs. We weren’t supposed to like him, and yet here we are.

The strength of the Scott Pilgrim series has always been Ramona and the colorful supporting characters. Less Scott is a good thing. Less Scott played by Michael Cera is an even better thing. In Takes Off, Ramona is the star, meaning the show gives her the space to actually process and learn from her past. Characters like Knives Chao and Matthew Patel finally get their flowers. It’s remarkable how vast an improvement all-around this story undergoes by simply shifting perspective.

As an added bonus, Takes Off more thoroughly forces Scott to confront himself than the throwaway joke of Scott vs. Negascott half-heartedly attempted in the film. It also doesn’t let Scott off the hook for casually grooming Knives.

Takes Off is charming and visually a treat coming from anime studio Science Saru, which has worked on Adventure Time and Star Wars: Visions. And don’t worry. The 8-bit references and style don’t go away. The writing is also just as sharp and funny as the original series of comics and the film and comes to life thanks to the principal cast and the voice talents of guest stars like Will Forte, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Finn Wolfhard, Simon Pegg, Kevin McDonald, and Weird Al Yankovic.

The anime aesthetic and tropes might be a bit much for the average viewer, but hopefully they serve as a gateway for non-anime fans to begin exploring other shows while we eagerly wait for Scott Pilgrim season two.