SCOTT PILGRIM: 20 YEARS OF HAPPY PILGRIMAGE
february 5th 2024
The character Scott Pilgrim, who turns 20 this year, has enjoyed a long and fruitful pilgrimage, as befits his surname, from his birth in the form of a graphic novel to his latest successful animated series released by Netflix.
His creator, the Canadian Bryan Lee O’Malley, was born in 1979 in London, Ontario. After studying film — though he never completed the course — at the University of Western Ontario, he got his start as a comic-book artist for the independent publisher Oni Press. In 2003, he published his first graphic novel, Lost at Sea, and the following year, he finally released the creation that would bring him the most fame, Scott Pilgrim. His tales of the carefree, nerdy 20-year-old, a fan of rock music and video games, whose life takes a radical turn when he meets the eccentric Ramona Flowers whose seven exes he must defeat in combat to win her heart — despite the fact that Scott himself already has a girlfriend, 17-year-old Knives Chau — quickly became a big hit, both commercially and critically. The protagonist’s charisma, with which many young readers could identify, paired with plots that seamlessly blend fantastical comedy and the slice-of-life genre with a touch of romance, as well as its bold art style with clear manga influences — alongside those of alternative American artists like Paul Pope — would quickly earn the comic plenty of fans and make it one of Oni Press’ all-time best sellers.
The Scott Pilgrim saga stretched into 2010 with a total of six volumes, initially published in black and white but with a later reprinting in colour, achieving a run of over a million copies worldwide. Meanwhile, the comic earned its creator, O’Malley, recognition with some of the most prestigious awards in the comics industry, like the Harvey Award or the Joe Shuster Award. Unsurprisingly, it’s been translated into numerous languages, from Finnish to Polish to Korean; the Spanish edition was released in 2009 by Ediciones DeBolsillo, a subsidiary of Penguin-Random House.
A FEATURE, A SHORT… AND A VIDEO GAME
With Scott Pilgrim‘s success, it was only logical that he would grace the screen before long. He first did so in the live-action feature Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which premièred in August of 2010, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Michael Cera in the lead role. Though it was far from a box-office hit, the film was well received by critics, which helped to grow the cult following already enjoyed by Scott Pilgrim as a comic.
Simultaneously, in order to promote the film, Scott Pilgrim would see his first animated adaptation: the short Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation, created by the studio Titmouse to promote the live-action film; and the Canadian company Ubisoft Montreal — an affiliate of the French Ubisoft — released a video game for PlayStation and Xbox also called Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Despite this, and possibly owing to its poor showing at the box office, Scott Pilgrim would have to wait a while to get another adaptation to the screen, whether big or small.
TAKING OFF ON NETFLIX
But, as the saying goes, “better later than never”, and in 2022, Netflix announced production of an animated Scott Pilgrim series. Titled Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and presented as an “alternative version” of the original comic, the series cast Michael Cera and other actors from the 2010 film to once again give voice to Scott and the other characters. Though O’Malley himself collaborated on the scripts, some elements were updated from when the comic originally came out: for example, while Ramona was originally a delivery person for Amazon, in this new version, she delivers DVDs for Netflix. Released on Netflix on 17th November 2023, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off comprises 8 half-hour episodes. Despite the instantly enthusiastic reception it garnered, both from old-school Scott Pilgrim fans and those just getting to know the character and his world, there are currently no plans for a second season to be produced.
The animation was done by the Japanese studio Science SARU with an international team led by Catalan Abel Góngora (Barcelona, 1983). Despite his youth, Góngora already boasts an impressive CV in the field of animation, initially working with European studios like the Irish Cartoon Saloon and French Ankama. It was the creation of an affiliate of the latter company in Japan, Ankama Japan, that allowed him to relocate to the Land of the Rising Sun. There, he met director Masaaki Yuasa, who would go on to co-found Science SARU in 2013. Góngora became one of the new studio’s first collaborators, working on such well-known series as Adventure Time and Shinchan and on the feature Lu Over the Wall (2017), as well as directing T0-B1, a segment from the animated anthology series Star Wars: Visions, to name just a few projects.
A STOP IN BARCELONA
The latest edition of the Manga Barcelona convention, held the 7th through the 10th of this past December, featured O’Malley and Góngora as guests of honour, along with Science SARU’s producer, Kohei Sakita. All three took part in a presentation and screening of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, as well as a live interview, in which they revealed details and anecdotes about the series’ creation. Góngora also gave a talk with the telling title How to Direct an Anime in Japan (which can be viewed in Spanish at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLsaL1eU8BI).
Abel Góngora claims the honour of having been the first Spaniard to hold the position of director at a Japanese animation studio, and we hope we’ll be able to enjoy his next displays of talent soon. We also hope that other talented young people from our country follow in his footsteps and feel animated — no better way to say it — by the idea of experiencing the “Japanese adventure”, as he has.
Alfons Moliné
