Whatever Happened to Scott Pilgrim? Detective Ramona Flowers is on The Case!

The early 2000s saw the birth of Scott Pilgrim. A slacker who mooches off his cool gay roommate Wallace, dating (?) a high schooler and in love with a girl from his dreams who he meets in real life. To get the girl from his dreams, the American ninja delivery girl Ramona Flowers, Scott must first defeat her seven evil exes.

Scott Pilgrim is by no means a conventional hero, but he is a hero in his story. If you think about it, he’s an asshole, and a loser – he’s constantly called out for being both. But there’s something about him, despite his long list of shortcomings that just makes you turn the page and maybe even root for him. 

In 2010, Scott went a little more mainstream. The live-action adaptation of the graphic novels propelled Scott into a three-dimensional universe in Scott Pilgrim vs The World. The cult film was more or less a faithful adaptation of the source material and it really brought the graphic novels to life as accurately as possible. From the comic book-esque cinematography, video game style effects and dialogue delivery, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World remains as one of the best graphic novel adaptations to film. 

After the film came the video game, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. Scott Pilgrim’s saga once again easily translated into a video game format because of the nature of the plot. Because what’s better than watching Scott fight, is literally fighting as Scott.

And now finally, Scott Pilgrim has decided to venture into the world of anime this year in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off with the original cast of the film reprising their roles.

The beauty of Scott Pilgrim is that you can stumble your way into his subspace portal much like Ramona does and not feel way out of your depth. Personally, I first stumbled into his subspace portal on the second graphic novel. The narrative flow doesn’t feel overwhelming and you can always backtrack to reach the beginning without it feeling like a chore. Enter via the film, the books, the video games and your experience if slightly different, remains vastly unaffected. That’s the wonder of Scott Pilgrim’s transmedia storytelling technique.

When the animated series was initially announced, the fanbase was ecstatic. Hungering for more, Scott Pilgrim in any iteration was fit for consumption. But the question remained, will something new be brought to the table or will it be the same old story in animated form? Will we finally see Lisa Miller?

In the beginning, it starts off exactly as an average beginning for Scott Pilgrim. Waking up in Wallace’s apartment, meeting Ramona for the first time, Kim Pine screaming “We are Sex Bob-omb!!” during rehearsal and you think:

Wow, I’m back in the late 2000s and hit by a truck with NOSTALGIA for a license plate.

But that’s only the first episode, because Scott Pilgrim Takes Off changes it’s trajectory to a completely different direction after episode one, as Scott is presumed dead and you find Ramona attending his funeral.

Soon enough, Ramona realizes that the loose change substituting Scott’s corpse is in fact not Scott. The series now changes into a Columbo-style whodunit with Detective Ramona on the case.

Ramona Flowers was (and to an extent still is) a poster girl for the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. But if you really think about it, she isn’t. She isn’t an ideal or nice person. In fact, she’s a lot like Scott, which is what ironically makes them perfect for each other. She’s left a trail of broken hearts in the dust while zipping along in her rollerblades as she navigates the subspace highways.

And while watching the live-action film or reading the books, we never really get a look into her head at all. We don’t consider how her evil exes feel and what really fuelled their need to form the ‘The League of Evil Exes’ anyhow. The focus of plot has always been Scott, which is natural with him being the titular protagonist. But, there’s an equally interesting subplot waiting to be unraveled in Ramona.

The anime is aptly called Scott Pilgrim Takes Off because Scott Pilgrim has indeed taken off. He’s missing for majority of the show. Ramona is left behind to piece together the mystery of his disappearance while piecing together the shards of her exes’ broken hearts. She gives them the one thing necessary for them to move on and put the past behind them; closure.    

In the last episode where Ramona dyes her hair for the last time, she looks at her reflection and is happy with it (for the first time). It’s a poignant scene where she decides to finally stop running away from her problems.

There’s a lot more focus on the evil exes themselves, their motivation and how they’ve grown as people. It’s a peek into the lives of characters who otherwise just exist to get beaten by Scott. And it really does cement the fact that the exes are as anchored to Ramona as she is to them. They aren’t really evil…just misguided and lost.

Despite the lack of Scott Pilgrim, the spirit of Scott Pilgrim is evident everywhere. The amalgamation of the graphic novels, the films and the video game in the anime is seamless. The mood of the episodes is set with the title card, like a video game when the words ‘PRESS START’ flash across the screen with Player 1 (or even the additional Player 2), depending on the situation Ramona’s investigating.

Episode 3 starts off like Young Niel’s screenplay. Young Niel’s screenplay, Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life is actually the story of Scott Pilgrim vs The World, the original timeline that Scott should exist in. It’s a fun little nod that the title of the screenplay shares its name with the first volume of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novel.     

Speaking of screenplay, it is a riot. Here’s an excerpt of a conversation with actor Lucas Lee (Ramona’s second evil ex, voiced by Chris Evans) and his agent.

Agent: I’ve got bad news and bad news.

LL: Let’s start with the bad.

The script is very tongue-in-cheek, especially the bit about directors not consulting writers.

Scott Pilgrim has always been known to be jam-packed with pop culture references and the anime is no exception. You have everything from Shakespeare (Et Tu Roxie) to Walt Whitman (O Captain! My Captain!). Future Ramona’s time-traveling abilities come from her rollerblades made from the parts of a DeLorean and coupled with the imagery is a really nice Back to the Future nod. You have Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi.” There are numerous film references that are better left unsaid because spotting them is a game in itself.

Though I will say the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost cameo was a pleasant surprise. We can finally say that Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim take place in the same universe.

Of course, the Scott Pilgrim Takes Off universe is in an alternate universe from the original itself. Ramona is no longer an Amazon delivery girl, instead she delivers DVDs for Netflix! One could say Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is to Scott Pilgrim what Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time is to Evangelion.

A fitting comparison because there are Evangelion references throughout the show. The most memorable one is the A.K. Field (Anti Kiss Field) essentially being the same, right down to its appearance as Evangelion’s Absolute Terror Field (A.T. Field). Coincidentally, Envy Adams’ appearance was largely inspired by Evangelion’s Asuka.

The Scott Pilgrim franchise is also known for its soundtrack. Considering that the protagonist plays the bass in a band, it’s only natural for music to play as vital a role as the visuals. Both the film and the game had an amazing soundtrack, the Metric’s “Black Sheep” sung by Brie Larson (Envy Adams) is perhaps one of the most iconic songs in the OST. The game’s OST was composed by pop-rock band Anamanaguchi and for the anime soundtrack, the band teams up with Joseph Trapanese. It’s as funky as Scott Pilgrim should be.   

In a way, while Scott Pilgrim Takes Off does bring something fresh to the table, the anime is not exactly the ideal starting point for someone new to the franchise. There is some amount of catching up to do. Going in, it should be kept in mind that Scott Pilgrim will not be present for most of the time (heed the title) and that the anime is by no means an adaptation of the graphic novels.

Instead, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off functions as a love letter to the world of Scott Pilgrim. You can tell that a lot of love has gone into bringing this to life, from the delivery of the lines from the original cast from Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead to Jason Schwartzman and Kieran Culkin (all of them reprising their roles and having fun with it). Plus, there’s the visuals, the script and the sound.

It’s like visiting an old friend and catching up after a long, long, long, long time. You’ve both changed, grown (hopefully) but fundamentally you’re still you and Scott’s well…still Scott.

It’s a happy ending for Scott though if the post-credit scene is anything to go by, it’s not the last we see of him.

Inevitably our subspace highways are bound to cross with Scott’s again.