So yesterday, I watched Scott Pilgrim Takes Off for a podcast, and oh lord am I glad that I had to finish it for said podcast, because I probably wouldn't have if it weren't for that, despite the show only being eight episodes long.

Spoiler warning.

Of course, I know that's a uh, pretty negative note to start this review on, and I know this site has a pretty positive opinion of the show, so let me say some good things first to pretend to be balanced. This show's visuals, from its animation to directing to character design, are IMMACULATE. Absolute 10/10 stuff. Most notable to me is that it just doesn't look like other anime. As much as I generally like anime art styles, it can be a bit exhausting going through so many seasonals and realizing that half of them have no visual identity beyond being generically anime. But this show OOZES visual identity from every orifice. It's one of those anime where the characters feel like they fit the backgrounds and the backgrounds feel like they fit the characters and everything fits together perfectly. I just wish these visuals were for a show that was, you know, good.

The voice acting is also great, at least on the english dub. They brought back the actors from the movie to reprise their roles, and I can see why this was an ideal scenario, because every voice fit every character to a T. I'm especially partial to Scott, Kim, and Knives's voices.

Before this, I was a Scott Pilgrim virgin, and I regret this show being my first time. I did have some vague tertiary knowledge of the series coming into it, but the one thing I've really gleaned is that at its core, Scott Pilgrim is about a terrible person becoming a slightly less terrible person. And that premise is RIGHT up my alley. I'm a (punished) Mushoku Tensei fan; I'm used to my protagonists being DOWNRIGHT REPREHENSIBLE. In fact, I want more shows to have just the worst people as their main characters, because to me it presents a fascinating conundrum. How low can you go while still being redeemed? How do the worst types of people redeem themselves?

Very few people watching this show are as bad as Scott Pilgrim. Hopefully. He's pathetic, he's cringe, a complete loser, mooches off his gay roommate (even going so far as to use his credit card to buy shit), he's so unlikeable that the people in his life seem to more so tolerate him than actually like him, and most notably, he's a pedophile, dating a 17 year old at 23. Okay, not really. Scott Pilgrim is dating a girl named Knives Chau, but he doesn't really love her. Instead, he's taking advantage of her naivety to keep some sort of companionship in his life while he looks for another woman. But as soon as he meets Ramona Flowers, it's all Knives Who in Scott's head. So if Scott can be THIS BAD and still redeem himself--- what's stopping you from changing too? It's a pretty beautiful message when you get down to it.

Scott and Knives are my two favorite characters in this show based solely on the first episode. Scott is the sort of reprehensible person I want to see grow and change, and Knives is the perfect girl to represent this manipulative side of Scott. She's immature, seemingly even for her already young age, and is just the cutest, purest little angel. Watching all her facial expressions is pure serotonin to me. She's a ray of absolute sunshine you want the best for, and the best means not dating a manipulative, awful 23 year old. You can see immediately why Scott was able to take advantage of her, and she's also immediately someone you want to root for.

So if I can heap this much praise onto how brilliant the construction of Scott Pilgrim is, where did it all go wrong? The answer lies in the fact that this is one of those good ole creative adaptations as it were. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off doesn't actually tell the original story of Scott Pilgrim. It does for like, a single episode, but after that, it becomes an alternate universe version of Scott Pilgrim. See, the series revolves around Scott fighting all of Ramona's evil exes in order to get the girl, and they've all formed an outright LEAGUE of evil exes. In the original story, Scott does in fact fight all of the evil exes one by one, but in this version, he seemingly dies to the first one, before it's revealed that he was actually kidnapped by his time traveling older self. This means that from episode 2 to the end of episode 6, Scott is nowhere to be seen in his own show.

Sooo... I don't want to come off like I'm against adaptations changing the source material as a concept. But to me, this is all predicated on one idea: how does the show benefit from altering the source material? In instances like K-On it's easy to point at how, but in this? I'm just baffled by this decision.

There are two major problems with the show taking this direction. First of all, the story it plot-twists into is just... nonsensical. A bizarre patchwork of ideas that don't really take on any cohesive form. Scott Pilgrim the anime starts off as the story of Scott Pilgrim the comic before Scott Pilgrim gets kidnapped by older Scott Pilgrim. The older Scott Pilgrim tells Scott Pilgrim that he shouldn't enact the story of the original Scott Pilgrim because the Scott Pilgrim of that story actually stays a pathetic sack of shit even after it ends. Young Scott Pilgrim ain't about that so he goes back in time to enact the original story of Scott Pilgrim anyway. Concurrent to all this, a Scott Pilgrim movie following the story of the original Scott Pilgrim--- written by old Scott Pilgrim of course--- is being made. This eventually turns into a musical based on the original Scott Pilgrim which the characters of Scott Pilgrim attend, only to have to face off against old Scott Pilgrim. They defeat old Scott Pilgrim ensuring that young Scott Pilgrim doesn't become him, and they all live happily ever after.

It's an extremely self indulgent narrative that's constantly pointing at the camera and acknowledging its own meta. I usually don't mind that, but to what end was this done? I guess for the funsies, but I don't think it's particularly good storytelling. Instead of having a well told arc about Scott Pilgrim becoming a better person, it's all rushed by necessity due to the changes made to the narrative. Instead of any of the characters getting a meaningful arc or becoming fleshed out individuals, it's all eschewed in favor of some bizarrely self referential story that doesn't feel like it means a whole lot.

It's not for a lack of trying of course. The intent to further emphasize Ramona Flowers as a protagonist is certainly present, and there are some brief flashes of her realizing that she was also as toxic as her exes, particularly in episodes 3 and 4. But even this feels like it doesn't amount to a whole lot. There's never a definitive moment where Ramona sits down and thinks to herself "maybe I'm the reason why I have so many evil exes". Ramona as a protagonist is legitimately BORING, especially compared to Scott. Despite the intent to flesh her out further, she just comes off as a one note lovesick detective while the show vaguely gestures in the direction of her also being a toxic person.

The pieces are there, but to service this ridiculous narrative, the pieces aren't allowed to go much of anywhere interesting. Knives grows from being head over heels in love with Scott through music, I guess, though it isn't told in much depth, and we get a moment of Scott saying "Apparently society looks down on a 23 year old dating a 17 year old". Which uh, thanks for taking responsibility there. Sure, it's society's fault you can't date a minor. Thanks Scott Pilgrim. Kim Pine gets basically nothing to speak of except for an admittedly awesome lesbian kiss. I guess Wallace and Julie get some pretty fun moments, and the evil exes are ostensibly getting further developed, even if I cared about hardly any of them by the end. Scott does have his realization that he's a terrible person, but this time it's once again rushed, and also caused by him just looking at his future self and being like 'damn, I don't want to become him'. It's an extremely unsatisfying way to tell his arc. Overall, the story feels aimless, sloppy, rushed, and simultaneously like it's trying its damnedest to not move forward.

This all leads to my second major problem with this narrative change: episode one is a straight adaptation of Scott Pilgrim. It places all the building blocks for what should be a 9 or even 10/10 anime, and that first episode is downright incredible! It sets up everything I was talking about earlier with Scott Pilgrim being terrible and Knives Chau, and it sets up the inevitable realization on Scott's end that he could fit right in with the evil exes. But it then hard pivots into a bizarre whodunnit that doesn't do any of the themes set up by that first episode JUSTICE. And I have to ask once again, for what benefit? It's one thing to tell a nonsensical self referential and kind of pointless feeling story, but it's another to dangle the version of the story in front of the audience and yank it away before it has a chance to show its true kino colors. A plot twist is only good if the story it's plot twisting into is more interesting than what it was before the twist, but in this show, 'tis the opposite.

I've heard people defend it as an interesting new direction and say 'well if you don't like the anime just read the comic'. Okay, but the comic's story could absolutely be elevated by animation, voice acting, directing, and music. And even if you're to make that argument, that still doesn't change the fact that this story just isn't well told nor impactful.

A few notes before we wrap up: one, the whodunnit sucks. It doesn't have any intrigue because the clues we get to the mystery of who kidnapped Scott don't compel you to think about them. We see a vegan portal take Scott away, because being vegan gives you superpowers in this world. That's funny, but then we learn that this vegan portal is too perfect to be made by Todd. What does a perfect vegan portal look like? How were we supposed to know that? The twins being the ones behind the kidnapping is just a matter of ruling out exes one by one until we find whodunnit. My friend predicted that Scott would also be the one behind the kidnapping at episode 2, which he is. He and the twins were teaming up together in the future. The vegan portal was made by a robot because he's vegan but lacks the imperfections of man, which is funny as fuck, but once again, not really compelling for a mystery. Like okay, I guess that works, but we're going off of stupid cartoon logic, so there's not really much to think about in terms of the mystery. It's not like Zaregoto where all the logic falls into place and you could theoretically get it beforehand, even if the answers are ridiculous. It's just ridiculous here. And that's funny, sure, but I didn't care to guess at the mystery like I would in something like Zaregoto.

The show is pretty consistently funny, especially Young Neil. I think it's hilarious that Julie is turned on by maniacal scheming and evil plans. Episode 5 is probably my second favorite in the show just on account of it being funny as fuck, it really is one of the few parts of the show where I was legitimately having fun.

Ramona Powers being madly in love with Scott to the point of dedicating her life to tracking down his kidnapper after ONE DATE because "I dunno the vibes were good", despite him dating a 17 year old, and despite Ramona knowing he dated a 17 year old, is just odd. Like, I guess it makes sense? But it's so extreme, and the fact that she seemingly just doesn't care that he's a pedophile is kinda gross.

So overall, what did we learn? Not much. It feels like the show was kind of a waste of time, with my engagement mostly buoyed by the eye candy visuals and solid humor on a moment to moment basis. But in terms of engaging narrative structure, solid character development, and interesting themes, this has little to feed you. 5/10, a mediocre and boring experience. Monogatari should've stayed in Japan.