Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the new anime series from Netflix, just got a trailer, promising a vibrantly stylised affair that reimagines the classic battle of the exes tale. While the art style draws heavily from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s original graphic novel series, it brings back the cast from Edgar Wright’s 2010 live-action film. As such, it forms a full-circle moment, though the anime format allows co-writer BenDavid Grabinski to take an ambitious leap — one that would’ve cost more than Avatar if Netflix were to re-interpret the comics accurately in live-action format. The Scott Pilgrim anime is out November 17.
The trailer for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off opens with the titular 23-year-old bass player (Michael Cera) of the ‘Sex Bob-Omb,’ dreaming about Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a rebel delivery girl he recently met and fell head over heels for. She’s the new girl in town, just moved to Canada from her busy life in New York City, and instantly grabs Scott’s attention at a party. “Hey, wanna go out sometime?”, he asks her, while shaking in his boots, only to be met with a polite yes. Unbeknownst to him, Ramona’s got seven evil exes, all of whom he must defeat in distinct standoffs — from video-gamey arcade arenas to a musical faceoff — to be able to actually date her.
As mentioned before, the entire cast from the live-action film is back, starting with Satya Bhabha as Ramona’s first ex-boyfriend Matthew Patel, Hollywood actor Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), the mighty vegan Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), the specialised ninja Roxy (Mae Whitman), and more. All the while, Scott must also deal with the fallout of his recent breakup with Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), who’s hellbent on winning him back by besting Ramona in combat. Adding onto the pile are the disapproving glares and judgemental comments from his sister Stacey (Anna Kendrick) and his obnoxious former classmate Julie Powers (Aubrey Plaza). Netflix released a clip from the Scott Pilgrim anime last month, in which the latter can be seen strictly forbidding him from going after Ramona. There seems to be some history between the two, which I hope is explored in the show.
While the clip isn’t reflective of the entire eight-episode-long show, I found the dialogue delivery to be quite jarring, with a lack of flow suggesting that the actors were possibly not in the same room/ studio during the recording process. Wright, who directed Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, returns as executive producer on the anime. “Luckily, the Scott Pilgrim cast became a close-knit family and friendships were forged for life,” he said in a prepared statement. “There — to this day — is still a group email with the entire cast on it, that’s been going since 2010. I was happy to be able to reach out to everyone with the news that we had finally come up with a way to continue the adventure.”
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is being produced by Japanese animation studio Science SARU, known for taking traditionally drawn art and moving it around digitally. Some of their renowned works include Devilman Crybaby and Japan Sinks: 2020, both of which featured incredibly rough linework with weird bodily proportions. However, with this new project, the team appears to be sticking with O’Malley’s original vision.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off releases November 17 on Netflix.