A cult classic of the early 2000s “Scott Pilgrim V.S The World” is a movie directed by Edgar Wright, based on a comic written by Bryan Lee O’Malley.
As of November 17, the anime adaptation came out—a long-awaited show.
The hype was definitely worth it. I am one of those aforementioned fans, having loved the franchise since I watched the movie and read the comics. Initially, an anime adaptation sounded very repetitive, as the story had been told twice already.
However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the show took a vastly different direction than the comics and movies.
It starts very similar, up until Scott’s fight with Matthew Patel, one of Ramona’s seven evil exes. Here, Matthew wins instead of Scott, and Scott is pronounced dead, much to Ramona’s dismay.
She, in a dream, sees that Scott is not dead, but in a different dimension, and she tries to get him out, all the while fighting her evil exes, though they were not the ones who kidnapped Scott.
This direction—while sounding asinine to someone new to the franchise—is a very well-written path.
It’s hard to consume the past “Scott Pilgrim” media without seeing the very obvious problems. Most are probably a product of the times, occasionally using stereotypes against races and sexualities. I think that the show did a good job at keeping these characters recognizable and having the same charm as they used to, without using stereotypes like previous shows have done.
Another issue is that in the earlier media, Scott dates 17-year-old Knives Chau and a lot of the other characters see this and barely bat an eye. Meanwhile, in the anime adaptation, it is very clearly denounced and shown off as a bad thing. Also, they give Knives more character development outside of just being “Scott’s high schooler girlfriend”.
The movie doesn’t pass the Bechdel test, because all the female characters only interact because of Scott, but the show changes that.
Overall, the show has been a delight to watch, with fun visuals, amazing animation, and a killer soundtrack. It holds up the original fun of the comic and movie.
Animation gives it a wider range of things to do rather than live action, so that is most definitely a strength.
In my opinion, this show is a must-watch. It’s easy to binge and will not leave you unsatisfied.