The beloved comic book series, Scott Pilgrim, was just adapted into a short anime on Netflix with its original cast. I watched all 8 episodes, and I loved it. It was honestly worth the wait and the hype; it developed a lot of characters that we only knew little about in the comics.
Warning: This review will contain some spoilers. If you haven’t watched the anime, I recommend watching it before reading the review. Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Plot
The plot starts the same as in the comic book Scott Pilgrim, where our protagonist meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (whom he meets in his dream), and falls instantly in love with her—love at first sight. He wants to know more about this girl he meets in his dream. He goes to the party that she is at and decides to finally talk to her. Eventually, they hit it off as they go on a date. Scott then attempts to ask Ramona out to be his girlfriend, but Ramona reveals to Scott that she has seven evil exes that he has to defeat for them to date. Ramona’s heart complies with this once he meets Ramona’s first evil ex, Matthew Patel. He is determined, but there is a plot twist: ex gets the uppercut, Suprallsy defeats him, and Scott turns into coins. (Which is death in their universe.) Everyone is shocked. This is where the anime differs from the comic, as in the comic, Scott wins the battle.
Since Scott is dead, Ramona is now our new protagonist; we follow her as she discovers the mystery behind Scott’s death, and she has to talk to her exes to get clues on Scott’s mysterious death, as they are the primary suspects who would want Scott dead.
Plot Twist
Now many fans are upset with the anime, saying that they want a faithful full adaptation of the comics since the movie rushed the storyline and the game is well, a game, but this creative decision was made by the creator himself, Bryan Lee’O’Malley. His reason for not following the comics is that he is tired of adapting the same material and wants to do something different, I like his decision, as episode 1 of the anime was kind of boring because if you read the comic books or watched the movie, you already know how everything is going to play out.
Ramona and the Exes’ Characters Getting Fleshed Out
The biggest problem with the original source is Ramona. She is nothing but a plot device for Scott to become a better person. In the end, Ramona is barely developed as a character. We don’t know a lot about her character and her relationship with her ex other than that she is a bad person and cheated a lot. The anime completely changes that. As we see Ramona, we learn more about her history with her exes and how she hurt them. The exes also get their characters fleshed out in the books. They weren’t characters, just obstacles Scott had to go through to get the girl of his dreams. The anime makes them more human and less cartoony, making them people with their own emotions and thoughts.
Animation and Fight Scenes
The animation was well done; it was expressive and vivid, full of color. They nailed the Scott Pilgrim comic style. The fight scenes were entertaining and did not bore me one bit, as each fight scene was unique and fast-paced.
Overall
The anime was enjoyable to watch. I think that it is way better than the movie and the game, we get to have a new and different storyline, which I think is a way better option than seeing the same storyline. I would love for this show to get a second season, but I don’t think that will happen since the show ended with a good conclusion to the story. I rate this show a 10/10.
