Welcome back to my blind coverage of the new Netflix anime Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, a series based off of some of the most influential comic books and movies of my life. What I’m doing here is giving my thoughts, analysis, and predictions after each episode before moving onto the next, so what follows is based solely on the first four episodes (and will contain spoilers for all four, but for nothing that comes after).
You can find coverage of all previous episodes below:
Episode 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life
Episode 2: A League of Their Own
Episode 3: Ramona Rents a Video
With that out of the way, let’s jump into episode four, I’m sure Young Neil can show us the way…
I feel bad saying it, but I have rather mixed feelings about this episode. On the one hand, it's possibly the funniest installment of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off yet, with Young Neil and Lucas Lee providing killer punchline after killer punchline. It's also a truly sumptuous visual feast. The animation team clearly put their heart and soul into the skateboarding and battle sequences and their work more than paid off, with dazzlingly fluid and dynamic shots, jaw-dropping choreography, and some really fun visual/soundtrack synchronization. It's stellar work. And the character work is almost just as good, finding something really profound in Ramona and Lucas revisiting their high school romance and having to face the damage Ramona did no matter how good her intentions. In a vacuum, it's an excellent episode.
Yet, I can't help but feel disappointed by it, and I think that largely has to do with how isolated the episode feels from the ongoing storyline. The last few episodes have introduced some tantalizing developments — Matthew Patel's coup, Gideon's old life and connection with Julie, the discovery of Scott's survival, and the new relationships forming between the various supporting cast members — but Episode 4 does nothing with them. Following up that Gideon cliffhanger with a standalone entry is just cruel! Appearances by Young Neil, Wallace, and Envy do help to keep this episode grounded in the world of Scott Pilgrim, but frankly, I think it needed a subplot or two. This becomes especially clear when you get to those skateboarding and battle sequences; sure, I was just singing their praises to high heaven only a paragraph ago, and I stand by every word, but for all their visual wizardry, they go on just too long without providing any sort of real narrative purpose, without revealing anything new about the characters involved or advancing the plot in any way. Look, I'm a Dragonball Z fan, I love me some pointless visual spectacle, but these sequences could have been shaved down a tad to give the episode just a bit more substance. As it is, it felt padded.
I'm also feeling a disconnect when it comes to Takes Off's central mystery. Are we trying to solve the mystery of Scott's disappearance along with Ramona? At this point viewers don't have enough information to solve the mystery, but we do have way more information than Ramona herself does. With the proper care this could be fascinating, but as it is I'm mostly left frustrated as I watch Ramona pursue what I know are dead ends. For now, Ramona's search is just a tool to bring her into conflict with her various Evil Exes — and those sequences are great, truly!! — but it leaves a disconnect between Ramona's stated goal and the goal the narrative seems to have for her as a character that, at this moment in the series, is jarring.
I think this episode will play much, much better on rewatch, once I've finished the series, am no longer trying to solve a mystery, and can just enjoy the many great things it has to offer. But on first watch, and especially as I attempt to recap every episode, it's an installment that feels a bit disconnected from what came before; and, dare I say it, perhaps even a bit formulaic, after three full episodes where I never knew what would happen next for even a moment.
Stray Observations:
— I am loving the direction the series seems to be heading, where Ramona is forced to face each of her seven Evil Exes rather than Scott, and rather than defeat them in battle, has to come to terms with the way things ended between them and her role in it. It's great character work for Ramona and a really interesting contrast to Scott's quest in earlier incarnations of the story. I have so many thoughts about this topic, but I've yet to be able to coalesce them into anything coherent; I have a feeling that fully exploring this topic is best saved for once I've finished the entire series and have a better idea of its resolution, but rest assured, I'm aware of what's happening and am fascinated by it.
— Working lyrics from Avril Lavigne's seminal classic "Sk8er Boi" into Lucas' conversation with his manager is a stroke of genius that had me laughing my ass off.
— It is truly a blessing to witness the return of Wallace Wells, professional heckler.
— The long, lush opening sequence of Lucas Lee skateboarding across the Los Angelian infrastructure ending with his antics causing a car crash is such a quintessential Scott Pilgrim joke, inasmuch as it's interested in exploring the ways the magical and mundane elements of its world collide.
— There must be several dozen movie references packed onto the screen in the minute or so Young Neil spends showing Ramona around the movie studio, far too many for me to even begin to catalogue. That said, my favorite reference is the movie backdrop recreating this famous still from Neon Genesis Evangelion (my nemesis), only with Scott's head floating in the background instead of GNR’s.
— It's glanced over, but we learn in this episode that Ramona knows Scott was dating Knives, and it feels like that should be a bigger deal, given how hurt and betrayed Ramona was when she discovered this in both previous incarnations of the story. I really, really hope we're leading up to something big with Knives, who has oddly been relegated to a background player thus far. The possibility of Ramona learning that the guy she's working so hard to rescue was kind of a dick has so much potential, and I don't want to see that potential wasted.
— Lucas Lee’s alibi is that he couldn't have kidnapped Scott, as he was at a movie premiere where he was puked on by co-star Winifred Hailey. This is another bit of deep Scott Pilgrim lore, as Winifred is a frequent co-star of Lucas’ in previous adaptations of the story. In the movie, she’s Lucas’ scene partner in the film he’s filming during his fight with Scott. Volume 2 of the comics also name drop her as Lucas’ co-star in his film You Just Don’t Exist, but she eventually appears on-page in a rare Free Comic Book Day one-off story, where Scott and Ramona are forced to fight a gaggle of ninja Winifred clones and Ramona has to “puppet” Scott since he won't hit a girl. The movie would later borrow this idea for the Scott and Ramona vs. Roxy fight.
— This is an episode essentially about Lucas Lee getting cancelled that can’t actually use the term “cancelled,” since it takes place in the early 2000s. They work in a clever gag about this near the end.
— There’s a brief moment in this episode where Ramona laments that her opportunity to be with Scott was robbed from her, and that makes me wonder if the real purpose of Scott’s disappearance wasn’t to hurt Scott, but to keep him and Ramona apart. But why? Adding to the mystery, we’re led to assume that whoever kidnapped Scott also wrote Young Neil’s screenplay, but these two ideas feel at odds: who would kidnap Scott to keep him and Ramona apart, but also help create a movie that advertises how great they could have been together? Even dropping my first theory, I think a key clue here is to consider who would have something to gain by making this movie…but I don't have any answers to that yet.
Thanks for following me on this journey, friends! See you back here tomorrow for Episode 5!
“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin about his relationship with the stories he loves. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!
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