Scott Pilgrim.

My return? No, not exactly, I just missed an opportunity to get down all my thoughts on the brilliant Inception, which I fully recommend, it's easily one of my favourite films. So I felt it a real waste to not write about something else that's found its place in my heart. Okay...now as always, here's a little history lesson....

Back in the early, happy, romance, sex filled void that was the start of my relationship I read the first three volumes of Scott Pilgrim and honestly...I hated it. It was slow, purposely pretentious (and that's never something good to be) and the art was lacklustre at best. But an important thing I hadn't noticed, was Scott's relationship was just like mine...

Several months later, the film comes out and I really enjoyed it, I won't go so far as to say I loved it, but I enjoyed it. And I decided to give Scott Pilgrim (the comics) a go again, more than anything to see how the film shaped up as an adaptation. I started from the third volume, not bothering with the first two again and just...wow.

My relationship now (this has a point, this isn't just a bleeding heart) is a total mess, it's pretty much fraked and I'm not sure it can be saved or if even either of us want to, it's cold and empty except for the fires of anger.

The first three or so volumes, Scott and Ramona are happy, just like I was when I read them. And then in the last volume and a half, everything goes really wrong for the once happy couple and suddenly I found myself really relating to the book. Or at least for the first time paying attention to how much my own life was the one in this crazy book. Even in the big and loud, wacky, anime inspired world of Scott Pilgrim I still found myself relating to Scott and my girlfriend to Ramona. And aside from the battles (obviously) I could really relate to how Scott was feeling and what he was going through and I could even see my own situations repeating in the book. I mean yes, the cast is colourful and a lot of Scott's feelings and situations are exaggerated for the sake of the books feel, but never to the point where the book feels alien. I don't think I've ever related to something like I did this.

I mean, normally when something is 'down to earth and relatable' it's normally also synonymous with 'boring' and 'depressing' and when they try to add escapism to 'down to earth and relatable' we get shit like 'Bridget Jones Diary' and 'Love Actually'. Ironically further, Scott Pilgrim clearly takes a HUGE amount of influence from anime/manga, only it achieves what they couldn't. When Japan tries to do emotion between it's crazy battles, it comes across as unbelievable melodrama.

And in many senses, even Scott's battles against the evil exes can be related with too. Ever been with someone and they just don't seem to be over them (their exes)? That whatever you do, they always seem to get in the way? You feel you have to fight their past to be truly with them in a serious relationship? Yeah, of course, we all have. Well in Scott's case, this is taken literally. But as a metaphor this is really clever. 

Admittedly, even though the Scott Pilgrim movie was weak as an adaptation, the battles against the exes were much better in the film. Although I grew to appreciate the quirky simplicity of Scott Pilgrim's comic artwork, it really just doesn't suit the battles very well. However the way they're captured on celluloid is perfect. 

So in short, Scott Pilgrim did what I thought was impossible, it combined Anime inspired escapism and real real life drama into one seamless package. And that should be remembered. Even if the book modernises itself mainly around a 4chan generation, Scott's past highs and lows and his relationship with Ramona should be relatable well into your late twenties. No more crying to sad music when you have a messy break up, just pull out your Scott Pilgrim volumes!

Think About It!

-Locke.