I first read Scott Pilgrim when I was, like, 11. So obviously I didn't get it at all, and just thought it was about cool guys kicking ass and getting chicks. I first re-read it at fifteen, and then once more at nineteen, each time doing a much better job at 'getting it'. I think it's a really great, heartfelt comic about self-critique, consequences, learning, and growing into adulthood. On that vein, even though I thought the anime looked absolutely gorgeous, I just couldn't help but kinda hate it. It felt like a lot of the more mature nuance of the comic was dumbed down for a more general audience. Not to mention the plot point of Scott growing up to be a total fuck-up after the ending of the original comic canon. Like, what? The whole point of the comics was that Scott faced himself in the end and was finally able to start growing as a person, and you're telling me that none of that ended up mattering?

Not to mention, I thought the original comics had some GREAT and incredibly heartfelt and grounded queer representation, whilst the anime's queer representation felt a lot more... Shallow? Wallace's promiscuity is played up to the point of caricature, the kiss between Knives and Kim is completely removed only to be replaced with whatever the hell THAT was with Kim and Roxy, which just felt like arbitrary fanservice. I could go on.

I totally understand WHY people would like the anime, though! It was definitely a FUN watch, and a visual treat, but the writing just really irked me, I guess.

Who cares, though, Gideon Graves was my 'Oh fuck I like men' awakening as a kid, and they gave him CRAZY Tboy Swag in the anime. I need him. I desire him. Yes he is evil and I fuck with that. I cannot fix him but I can make him worse, which is far more intimate.