#incredibly fun watching experience

[okayto]

Mini-Review: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

Scott Pilgrim meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers, only to find out her seven evil exes stand in the way of their love.

An alternate take on the Scott Pilgrim story, which started as a series of graphic novels and received a live action feature film in 2010, this anime starts off by seeming to be a pretty straightforward animated adaptation of the film, but that soon changes.

I can't speak to how either adaptation compares to the original books (because I've never read them), but the film, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, went heavy on the video game and comic influences in a way that I found fun when it came out, and still fun when I rewatched last year.

I'm here to talk about the anime, but it's worth bringing up the movie because my experience watching the show is inextricably linked to having previously watched the movie. I don't know how the anime would be without that; probably fine, but likely somewhat of a different experience without having a "previous" storyline to compare to.

Because for the first episode, the anime hews pretty darn close to the film, making it seem like you're just watching the same thing but in cartoon format. But it diverges at the end of the first episode, at which point it becomes super intriguingly clear to the viewer that they're going to get a different story.

And this is a fun story! These characters are mostly young adults, many of them if not aimless, then just kinda doing what they can in basic jobs to get by. Scott is a loser—like, an entertaining loser because of the plot, but the guy is 23 and initially dating a 17-year-old, which (in both versions) is made clear that everyone outside of the couple thinks this shouldn't be happening.

One of the things that becomes clear within a few episodes in this version is that compared to the film, Knives-the-17-year-old gets way more focus and is allowed to develop as a character beyond "enthusiastic high schooler with a giant crush on a loser." It's really nice to see, and it's part of a larger trend in this show of developing characters beyond the title guy and his actual love interest, Ramona.

Actually, Ramona gets more development, too. She's a much more prominent and active character in this show than the movie; as the plot goes on she deliberately inserts herself into various Shenanigans as she pursues answers to a mystery, and the audience gets a better grasp of who she is as a character, not just the object of Scott's instant attraction.

She and Knives aren't the only ones; even the League of Evil Exes gets more development! (Or, for people who haven't seen the film, they get introduced to the League as characters with personalities beyond "showing up to a single fight because some guy wants to date their ex-girlfriend.")

The fights make great use of animation as a medium. The colors are saturated, the movement has weight. I wondered, before watching, how the art style would translate because it's fairly thick and chunky, but it actually turned out fantastic. Animation is smooth, and the art consistently feels like a style rather than a bunch of chibi versions of adults.

Finally, I have to mention my favorite character: Wallace Wells, Scott's roommate who actually functions as an adult, and whose deadpan sarcasm I could watch all day. He's a great foil to Scott (immature, enthusiastic), but he is also just a pleasure to have on screen (although unfortunately, a lot of his snark doesn't appear to have been gif'd).

Verdict

English dub? Yes! They notably got all the main film actors to reprise their roles for the English voices, which is a bonus for film viewers. For anime-only watchers, they're just good, solid voices—generally normal people voices, not frenetic cartoon voices.

Visuals: Great, I actively enjoyed literally watching the show.

Worth watching? Definitely for enjoyers of the film, and almost-definitely for anyone else. It's a fun action-y show with good animation direction and plenty of humor.

Where to watch (USA, July 2024): Netflix

Click my “reviews” tag below or search “mini review” on my blog to find more!

[sainz100]

Max Verstappen | 2024 Belgian GP | 📸 via Verstappencom's Insta

[a-person-on-the-internet]

I love movies that are silly but I also absolutely hate silly movies. The former is a movie that has silly elements but also has other things in it to justify existing. The latter isn't even silly because the sillyness was designed by committee and committees can never be silly. Sillyness must originate from the weirdest person you know writing a silly bit but also that person has feelings and opinions on the world around them that impact what they find silly and how they execute their silly bit. Sillyness cannot come from a committee because committees homogenize the human experience into bland palatable mush that pleases no one.

This is about the minecraft movie's "the children yearn for the mines" 'joke', btw. and all the other 'jokes' the movie attempts to make. It's sillyness dictated by committee and therefore is not silly, zany, or whimsical at all. It somehow looks worse, because the first trailer made me think this would be bad in a train-wreck fun-because-i-can't-look-away kind of way, but it's clearly going to be bad in a mediocre-slop-created-by-a-marketing-team-and-without-creatives way, and that's way less interesting. Or, more importantly, silly.

[carcarrot]

this time last year i was probably sitting in the kitchen while my dad started making an early dinner of chicken bolognese trying not to get too nervous about the concert i'd be going to in a few hours

[destructive-delight]

rewatching laid-back camp was a good idea… camping is not for me, but this anime still makes me crave going outside, travelling, exploring new places and enjoying the slower moments with good food and a nice book, especially during the cold seasons.

[bluesidedown]

hnggghhggg

[ciderjacks]

DEADLOCH SPOILERS WATCH THE SHOW BEFORE U READ

Wait ok no oh my god, if I’m understanding correctly, so, Bushy’s murder was an inside job, right?? Like, a fellow cop killed him, and then the whole force not only gaslit Eddie but told her it was her fault he died. And then they sent her away, again all saying it was because she was the reason Bushy died, when really it was bc they didn’t want her around bc they knew she’d find out the truth…

that’s actually so fucked

[poughkeepsies]

rewatched the dynamite mv and felt the echo of the feelings it inspired back in 2020 and truly I need another hyperfixation like that again to feel alive

[gromky]

reading tags you guys leave rn and always feeling sooo 💖♥️💖♥️💕💖💕♥️💕💖💕♥️💖💕♥️💖💕

[jimmystrudel]

5 year dog plan updates: I think I've identified a breed (and 3 potential breeders), I have more clearly figured out what I don't want and what my life style will not fit and most important I need more experience with dogs in general

[starpros-sunshine]

On one hand the fact that nobody dislikes me is good it saves me a lot of trouble on the other hand I want someone to dislike me I want someone to think I'm the worst thing that ever happened to humanity I need to be someone's Roman empire in a stupid way. I don't need them to make it my problem but the sheer comedy in being able to ruin someone's day just by existing in their near vicinity is something I'd just like to experience at least once is all....

[coffee-at-annies]

Experience Pirates Baseball

[website-com]

very autistic media day

[kingdomoftyto]

...God the trick truly is to just not listen to that soundtrack at all for a few months at a time before listening to the whole thing in one go. Guaranteed religious experience by the time you hit "Finale ~ Dawn".

[ashleygraves-number1defender]

This art is so cuteeee 🥰 fav BOP is a very tough choice but Eurasian Kestrel! The reasoning is in the tags because I intended it to be a short explanation and wound up rambling, oopsie

Heres my girlie and the main reason behind the favouritism lol; she’s a year and a half old Eurasian Kestrel and owns my heart and soul! (Last pic was with her juvenile plumage)

american kestrel

tell me your favorite bird of prey :-)

[darlingofdots]

the vast majority of fanworks are bad, and that's fine, actually. they are bad for the same reason that the average number of legs for a human person to have is less than two: statistics. like with all endeavours and especially creative ones, most people who write fanfiction or draw art of their favourite characters are bad at it. if you line up all the crochet projects in the world, most of them will be, well, bad. some are bad because they're the first thing a person ever made, or the second or third or tenth, and this kind of thing takes practice. others are bad because the person who made them is just not very good at it. maybe they just learned how to make granny squares and they're perfectly happy to never expand or improve on that. most people who dance or bake or garden or braid hair are not amazing at it! and you'd never go to your kid's dance recital or eat your friend's homemade carrot cake and expect the same experience as you'd have at a professional ballet performance or award-winning bakery. And that's if we assume there is an objective measure of Good Art, which there isn't! Some art is just "bad" because you don't like it!

I think though that specifically with fanfiction, we sometimes forget that when we read a book or watch a movie, dozens of people have looked at it and given feedback and made changes and done quality control before the final product reaches our shelves or screens, and that's not counting the original writer's learning process and past experience. A published book is not anyone's first crochet project, even if it is their debut novel. But with fanfiction, the barrier to entry is so low (on purpose! this is a good thing!) that we do get to see a lot of wonky granny squares, and on sites like AO3 they're sitting on the same shelf as the hand-made silk lace wedding dress and you can't always tell just by looking at it which is which. The consequence of this is that we encounter fic that we think is unpolished, has bad punctuation, is out of character, and we are tempted to think "well, this is awful! how dare this person put this wonky granny square on the same shelf as the lace wedding dress!" But that's not how fandom is supposed to work! That wonky granny square is somebody who is really excited about this TV show they just watched and they are reaching out into the void to share their excitement with you. To scoff at them for not making a lace wedding dress is really, really rude. Even if they did make a lace wedding dress, maybe it's just really not your style, or you think they should have used a different pattern, and it's still their wedding dress. You don't have to wear the dress and you don't have to read the fic.

We all know that there is some fanfic out there that is incredible. I think it's important to talk about that! But the vast majority of people who post their writing online are just sharing their little hobby projects that they make for fun and I also think it's important to remember that.