Scott Pilgrim Takes Off has attracted a lot of attention for bringing back the cast and creative teams from the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and the earlier comic series, but it’s still aiming to surprise fans by being more than a reheated version of those cult classics. A part of the remit of this new anime version was to make it “intriguing and new and fun”, according to original creator Bryan Lee O’Malley.
O’Malley made the comment in a recent interview alongside collaborator BenDavid Grabinksi with Los Angeles Times, during which the pair discussed how they approached this new adaptation. And it sounds like some fairly serious changes are afoot. Grabinksi stated that, “If you think you know what you’re going to see, you don’t”. Most notably, while the anime will retain the unspecified 2000s Toronto setting and general story beats, the overall tone and style has been updated for modern times. The pair didn’t go into detail of what that means (though did confirm that it won’t mean the characters are glued to social media and that Ramona Flowers will no longer be an Amazon deliveryperson).
They did, however, discuss how time has changed their perspectives and the effects that’s had on how they’re telling the story. Most notably, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off will spend more time looking beyond the title character. “We’re seeing them more outside of their relationship to [Scott]”, said Grabinski. “Ramona especially. It’s been so fun to try to just give you so much more of an emotional connection to her and adding as much shading as we can.” The same idea has been applied to the seven evil exes.
Ultimately, the “goal was to make something that, if you love the books or movie, this would be really surprising and you’d realize that this is the ideal version of what we could do”, said Grabinski.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is set to arrive on Netflix on November 17. Our own Jesse Lab has argued why the franchise is a perfect fit for an anime adaptation, so if you’re still on the fence, you should check out his thoughts.
