Scott Pilgrim literally takes off.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is an interesting blend; a distinctly Japanese anime directed by a Spanish director (Abel Góngora) written by a Canadian (Bryan Lee O’Malley) and serving as a sequel to the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. A sequel? A prequel? A sidequel? I’m not sure exactly what to call it.

The eight episode series starts off familiar enough; Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) meets and falls in love with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) while dating Knives Chau (Ellen Wong), and jamming with his band Sex Bob-omb. He’s still a loser living with Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin), and it all leads up to the group’s big debut at a bar. And then you realize something is different when Crash and the Boys don’t show up. Needless to say, the first episode’s ending puts the show on a completely new path during Scott’s fight with Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha) and his demon hipster chicks.

And if you’re worried, don’t be. This isn’t a He-Man level bait and switch. It’s also not a direct adaptation of the comic or movie but a retelling of sorts.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off focuses heavily on the other characters of the plot, the ones we wish had a little more screen time. In particular, Matthew Patel gets his fifteen minutes of fame in order to show his personality and motivations. What do the characters do when Scott Pilgrim isn’t around? What’s the deal with the league of evil exes? Do they get along all the time or is there a structure to the organization? Basically the show uses a lot of its time to explain what the characters are doing in their own personal lives. Which is fine because Scott Pilgrim always had interesting characters.

And it’s a good thing, because the movie only gave us a few scant minutes of meeting Matthew Patel before Scott punched him into not enough coins to afford bus fare. The great part about this movie is just about everyone is here. Chris Evans is back as Lucas Lee, as is Anna Kendrick (Stacey Pilgrim), Brie Larson (Envy Adams), and more. In fact the only two major actors to not reprise their roles that I’m aware of are Shota and Keita Saito who played the Katayanagi twins in the film and also didn’t have a speaking role. Also Kevin McDonald is here as Edgar Wrong, a parody of the film’s director Edgar Wright.

And you can’t go wrong with a Kids in the Hall actor.

In addition to letting the side characters flourish, the show also allows Ramona more room to breath and understand herself. The characters have definitely more dimension to them than we got in the short two hours the film had to work with, and the whole thing is a new take on the original premise without shitting on it as so many reboots tend to do to the chagrin and hatred of the fans. The animation is fantastic and the soundtrack and audio are as just as good as you’d imagine from Anamanaguchi.

While I would have liked a straight adaptation of the graphic novel, and there’s always the possibility of that happening in the future, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is a fresh idea that keeps you guessing with each episode. It’s not a long watch, as each of the eight episodes is roughly a half hour. While some of the actors come back with a flourish, others are notably bored from time to time in their deliverance. Envy Adams is truly the role Brie Larson was born for.

It’s also nice to see the laundry list of other characters getting into fights with each other rather than simply going toe to toe with Scott. How would a fight between Gideon Graves and Matthew Patel play out? How about Scott Pilgrim actually getting into a fight fight with the Katayanagi twins? Ramona getting her real fight with Roxie? It’s all here and more, along with an army of dead ninja paparazzi.

If you haven’t, I highly recommend watching the 2010 Scott Pilgrim movie before coming to watch this. It’s not required reading, but it’s a natural flow from the movie.

Rating: A