Up until now, I’ve never read the Scott Pilgrim original graphic novels, nor saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, nor watched the Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. Neither did I ever listen to Plumtree. So, what changed? Apart from my general interest in Edgar Wright’s unique directing style and vision, the main motivation for finally checking this “franchise” out was the full Ukrainian translation of the novels. With my renewed interest in quality localisations and desire to support newer Ukrainian publishers, I’ve decided to get all of the volumes, the last of which was just released and see if it grabs me.
A quick explanation if you have no idea what Scott Pilgrim even is. Originally started as a series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, this is a “franchise” centering around the titular character and his friends living in Toronto and having a weird life that mixes usual early 20s drama and over the top and supernatural elements. With the central plot of both the novels and the movie being about Scott needing to defeat the “seven evil exes” of a girl he fell in love with to be able to have a relationship with her. It’s full of music and game references but can be enjoyed even if you don’t know them or have been a teenager in Canada in the late 90s.
If I’m being entirely and completely honest – the general concept and tone of the original graphic novels wasn’t that fresh or particularly well done even for when the first volume was published in 2004. Webcomics about slacker nerdy and weird characters were all the rage and even visually, I can’t help but remember Eddsworld by late Edd Gould when I look at the style of Scott Pilgrim. And yet… There is definitely something really neat and high quality about the presentation, the mix of genres and styles, usage of the game and music references. Although one can see how each next volume had at least a bit of retconning about the fates and personalities of the characters, the story is fun to follow and almost everyone grows and gets a satisfying resolution by the end. It’s a nice read that won’t necessarily grab you, but will grow on you as you read it.
Now, the movie? Holy crap is it an amazing watch from the moment it starts. It does make a lot of cuts in terms of scenes and characters and many little storylines get resolved differently or in a more condensed way in comparison to the novels. But if you watch it as a completely standalone story, it’s fantastic. It never stops, is consistently fun and funny, and most of the scenes that were crazy and inventive in the novels are somehow transformed to be even more dynamic and exciting in the movie. For anyone already familiar with Edgar Wright it’s probably not surprising, but as I’m less of a “movie” person, watching this was magical and inspiring. It is a bit of a shame, in context of this being an adaptation, how some of the characters are more primitive or get less screen time, but in the end it all leads to a better paced movie.
Which puts the animated series from 2023 in a weird spot. On one hand, it’s an entertaining alternate reality retelling of the same story. On another, it ends up lacking in both overall deepness that the original graphic novels occasionally had and style that the movie has in spades. While inventive in its own way, it feels more like a “traditional” anime adaptation of an exciting action story, rather than something completely wild. To its credit, it does give the viewers new and genuinely interesting stories about the characters you might’ve grown to like and provides fresh points of view on the overall themes and concepts of the “franchise”. Though, despite making some characters even more likeable and interesting, it still keeps some of the movie simplifications of characters and makes few other characters less interesting.
If you have not experienced anything Scott Pilgrim related, should you? Honestly, I’d suggest watching Scott Pilgrim vs. the World first. It’s incredible, funny and wonderfully shot and would make you fall in love with the characters much faster than the novels. Once you’ve done that and if you enjoyed the experience (which you most likely will), check the original graphic novels in colour. It will give you more story, provide a very interesting alternate look at the scenes you’ve seen in the movie and you might grow to like some characters (like Kim, for example) far more as a result. And if you want even more, you might as well check out Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. As enjoying it would probably be very hard without having the context of both the movie and the graphic novels, even if it does exist in its own canon reality. I’m very glad I’ve given these a check, but at the same time I don’t think I would want more animated series if they ever plan to do a continuation. Movie and the graphic novels were quite enough.