July 2, 2025

Scott Pilgrim is incredibly important to me. The movie, comics, game (soon to be games!), and anime all significantly influenced my taste in media and have brought me a lot of joy and comfort since I discovered them in grade school. I could write forever about the franchise as a whole, but this topic has been one that’s been on my mind for years.

As a broad overview, a really fascinating element of this franchise is how it progresses in time. The game and movie are fairly cemented in a late-2000s to early-2010s aesthetic that I really appreciate, but later projects like the anime don’t really feature that. More important to this topic, though, is that you can feel the franchise mature and change over time. A lot of that has to do with creator Bryan Lee O’Malley and how he has come to view the series and the events in it differently as he ages. There’s a certain scrappy punkness to the earlier Scott Pilgrim content that isn’t as present as the series goes on. This isn’t a bad thing; if anything, it’s an aspect to the franchise I really appreciate. Because, at the end of the day, growing up and maturing is a really important theme to the story of Scott Pilgrim. The humor, art style, and writing changing as it goes on works hand in hand with the narrative.

Speaking on the narrative, let’s zero in on one volume of the comics: Volume 4, Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together. As much as I love every part of this franchise, Gets It Together is far and away my favorite part of the story. It’s a perfect blend of fun, slice of life adventures with the characters, mixed with some of the most heartfelt and mature elements of Scott’s journey. The story focuses in on Scott’s reunion with his close high school friend, Lisa, and a bit of a rougher patch in Scott and Ramona’s relationship. This rift is due, in part, to Ramona reuniting with her ex-girlfriend, Roxie.

To make something very clear, the movie and comics are Scott’s story. As much as we do gain insight into Ramona, Wallace, Knives, and a bunch of other characters, it truly is Scott’s journey at the end of the day. As such, we see the story basically all from Scott’s perspective alone (this becomes a very important element in the plot in the later volumes of the comics). Why does this matter? Well, we don’t really get to fully understand Ramona’s relationships with her exes this way. We basically learn what Scott learns – their powers, quick elements of their backstories, and that’s about it.

Once again, this isn’t inherently bad, and it works really well in the movie especially. But the one ex we get to see more holistically is Roxie in volume 4. Despite her clearly antagonizing and disliking Scott, we see Ramona sitting down and enjoying a meal with Roxie as they catch up. This is an extreme shift from how Ramona treats her other exes, which boils down to, frankly, her not really caring about them at all.

Roxie is clearly different, both narratively and to Ramona. And, obviously, the biggest surface level difference is that Roxie is a woman, while Ramona’s other exes are men. This element – Ramona’s bisexuality – is one that has stuck with me for a while, but I don’t think I really properly processed it until the anime released.

Bi representation is really important to me, but it isn’t always the most fun topic to write or talk about. And this is because bi representation in media is almost always bad (to phrase this a little differently, it’s typically bad in the kinds of media I regularly consume). And I think part of why this plot point in the Scott Pilgrim comics stands out to me so much, besides the fact that I love Scott Pilgrim, is that it’s frustratingly close to something good.

Let me go back to Scott and Lisa’s relationship real quick. In the climax of their character arcs in Gets It Together, Scott is left with no other option than spending the night with Lisa. At the beginning of the night, they have a good time catching up and being friends again. But, as their discussion continues, the topic turns to Ramona’s suspicions of unaddressed feelings between him and Lisa. Lisa responds to this with what is nearly a proposition: “Maybe we should have. Maybe we should.”

They don’t, though. They sleep separately, Scott leaves, and they resolve things by being nothing more than old friends. Later, Scott returns to Ramona’s house, ready to fight Roxie and profess his love for Ramona. But there he finds that… Ramona did sleep with Roxie. They were intimate. And it’s played as a joke. A passing moment that’s not serious enough to ever be brought up again in the rest of the story.

Ramona and Roxie’s relationship is shown to be more important and nuanced than any of the previous (or following for that matter) exes, but Ramona essentially cheating on Scott is quickly glanced over as a simple gag. It’s possible I’m being a little too harsh here, though, so let’s examine how the movie handles this relationship.

The Movie

The movie is worse. What was initially a nuanced relationship turned joke in the comics becomes a quick joke that genuinely ends with Scott causing Roxie to climax to death. Is it bad to find parts of this fight funny? Not necessarily, though I will differ some of my thoughts as I think parts of this scene leans more towards misogyny than anything else.

Taken in tandem, though, I think the way this relationship is presented in the comics and movie are more so indicative of two common trends in pop culture that are still somewhat prevalent to this day. The first is a sort of friendly bi erasure. They show bi people, have one as a main character, and presents her having nuanced relationships, but ultimately brush it off as a series of jokes. The second trend, which is slightly more nefarious in my opinion, is the downplaying of lesbians being legitimate. Scott Pilgrim genuinely has a lot of gay men characters in the comics and movie. There are jokes surrounding them, sure, but not the kind of jokes that Ramona and Roxie are subject to.

A Quick Clarification

Is Scott Pilgrim problematic? Well, yeah. But to a certain extent, that’s part of the point. I think sometimes there’s a false equivalence between a piece of media having problematic elements intentionally written in and that piece of media being written poorly. As a very popular example, take Breaking Bad. There are tons of problematic things done and said by the main characters – but the main characters are also very flawed, and sometimes downright evil.

Scott Pilgrim has many problematic elements, but the characters are deeply flawed. Part of the joy and catharsis of the series is seeing these flawed, immature characters grow and become better people. I really, truly love this franchise because of that. And to be clear, I do genuinely believe that O’Malley and the other collaborators that worked on any early entry in the Scott Pilgrim universe had nothing but good intentions with these decisions. If nothing else, these concerns about bi erasure and illegitimization of lesbians are more so signs of the time. I promise you, other pieces of media around this time period that feature bi people or lesbians present them in much, much worse ways. But, as stated before, the jokes around and presentation of Ramona and Roxie’s relationship is not really problematic in the same intentional way.

Legitimizing

So, where do we go from here? Very, very few creatives get a big budget do-over of their series, but Scott Pilgrim is a fortunate example of that happening. And so, the anime does it justice.

Rather than Scott being the protagonist again, this time we follow Ramona. And she has extended sequences talking to all the exes (except the twins, but what can you do). And we see her talk to Roxie. Not only talk, but fight, and reminisce, and remember.

We actually see some Ramona’s curiosity form and their relationship develop. We see how deeply Roxie cared for Ramona and how coldly Ramona moved on. We see how much they were both impacted by this relationship. And it’s genuinely beautiful. It doesn’t treat Ramona’s bi-ness as a joke, but just as an aspect of her as a person. One that’s simply a part of who she is.

It was extremely cathartic for me to see this episode of the anime. O’Malley is a really kind and genuine guy (I can say that because I’ve met him!), and he’s stated several times that one element of the original story he regrets is the way Ramona and Roxie’s relationship is shown. So I find it really awesome that he and the team behind the anime found a way to revisit this element and do it justice, while still staying true to the characters and the spirit of the franchise. I mean, they fight and talk through a bunch of movies, it’s awesome.

The anime is a really sweet, mature look on these characters. You can really tell that O’Malley has grown with these characters and so he presents them in a more mature and nuanced way. And so, we see these characters again grow and change, but this time in a fresh and respectful way.

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While pride month may have ended, I hope you’ve enjoyed my analysis of a few queer creators and stories and continue celebrating queer creators year-round! I hope you enjoy these works and I highly recommend you support any queer artists you know. It’s more important than ever to show your support for the LGBTQ+ community. While I am not affiliated with them, I would like to direct you to The Trevor Project. They are a non-profit dedicated to protecting young members of the LGBTQ+ community, especially in regards to their mental health. If you have the means, they are always accepting donations to continue the work they’re doing. Even if you can’t support a group like that financially, you can still make a difference by being a strong ally. Support members of your family, friend group, and community, regardless of their identity.