![This Is Growing Up](https://cdn.magzter.com/1373332177/1700287016/articles/-b8ZcPKBC1700310824899/THIS-IS-GROWING-UP.jpg)
THE STORY OF SCOTT PILGRIM HAS always existed in a strange little pocket of time, one that seems perpetually on the brink of techno-modernity, and this continues to be true in its latest incarnation. In the new anime series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the world has spun on and the cultural references have been updated, but computers are still loud, blocky, charming things. Grimy music venues and video-rental spaces remain present in Scott’s Toronto, though you do feel a greater sense of their precarity. The future is encroaching, but he doesn’t care. After all, he’s still dating a high-schooler when he meets the girl of his dreams.
Published by Oni Press across the aughts, the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels bottled a vibrant feeling of being young and wayward in that cuspy Gen-X era. Written and illustrated by Bryan Lee O’Malley (with later rereleases inked by colorist Nathan Fairbairn), the books followed the journey of a sweet but self-centered 20-something dirtbag who falls in love with the effortlessly cool Ramona Flowers and ends up having to fight her seven evil exes. Along the way, he learns to see beyond himself or at least in that general direction. The stickiness of Scott Pilgrim has a lot to do with how the series captures the mess of being in your 20s, but its je ne sais quoi lies in the texture of its setting, a mundane Toronto that’s cut with literalizations of video-game and manga references. Despite possessing the lanky frame of an indie bassist, Scott happens to be a great fighter who’s constantly getting into scuffles straight out of Dragon Ball. Defeated antagonists explode into a mist of video-game coins. Ramona is a Rollerblading courier who uses Scott’s subconscious as an extradimensional superhighway to shorten delivery times.
This story is from the November 20 - December 03, 2023 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 20 - December 03, 2023 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
![What Did Brooklyn Bridge Park Get So Right?](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/t5US-5buj1719831859747/WHAT-DID-BROOKLYN-BRIDGE-PARK-GET-SO-RIGHT.jpg)
What Did Brooklyn Bridge Park Get So Right?
Nearly 20 years after we broke ground, it's more impressive than ever.
![No Man's Land](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/OBymLdeju1719831080836/NO-MANS-LAND.jpg)
No Man's Land
Rachel Cusk's gender fundamentalism fully surfaces in her latest novel, Parade.
![Faust Goes to Fidi](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/jQ5FFpHrc1719830822863/FAUST-GOES-TO-FIDI.jpg)
Faust Goes to Fidi
The producers of Sleep No More are back with the whirlwind immersive-theater project Life and Trust.
![The Renegade](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/5KrmkC8Kq1719830565866/THE-RENEGADE.jpg)
The Renegade
June Squibb has the perfect first lead role: a granny gone rogue.
![The Empty Seat](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/S4W_Wz0td1719830135111/THE-EMPTY-SEAT.jpg)
The Empty Seat
At Paris Couture Week, one question everyone's lips: Who will lead Chanel?
![The Hidden Dutch Colonial](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/PuABw96on1719829868361/THE-HIDDEN-DUTCH-COLONIAL.jpg)
The Hidden Dutch Colonial
When Nicholas Howey and his late husband, Gerard Widdershoven, bought this 1925 house tucked away behind the hedges in Bridgehampton, they did little more than paint it-and fill it with art.
![The Next Shishito?](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/VTbJ0FOpY1719829644148/THE-NEXT-SHISHITO.jpg)
The Next Shishito?
Jimmy Nardello peppers, long beloved by chefs, are set to break out.
![The Shrimp Show](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/WOZUjvCf11719828573976/THE-SHRIMP-SHOW.jpg)
The Shrimp Show
San Sabino makes maximalist seafood for the social-media age.
![The WEIGHT of a BOEING 787](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/-D4AybBb21719827869960/THE-WEIGHT-OF-A-BOEING-787.jpg)
The WEIGHT of a BOEING 787
Mitch Barnett spent years fighting one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers. It cost him his life.
![By age 43, I'd come up with many explanations for my perpetual strangeness with other people. - Then the autism diagnosis arrived.](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/3858/1749151/bFZnox1Zc1719826883563/BY-AGE-43-ID-COME-UP-WITH-MANY-EXPLANATIONS-FOR-MY-PERPETUAL-STRANGENESS-WITH-OTHER-PEOPLE-THEN-THE-AUTISM-DIAGNOSIS-ARRIVED.jpg)
By age 43, I'd come up with many explanations for my perpetual strangeness with other people. - Then the autism diagnosis arrived.
SIX YEARS AGO, my now-husband, Sam, asked my father if he could marry me.