Stitch!

Plot

Years after the events of Leroy & Stitch, Stitch has left Lilo after she went to college. He steals a space scooter from Dr. Jumba Jookiba and reverts to his destructive programming. While being chased by Jumba, the two get caught in a wormhole. Jumba crash-lands on an asteroid in Saturn's rings, where he reunites with Pleakley, stranded there two weeks prior.

Stitch ends up on Earth, crash-landing on Izayoi Island in the Ryukyus. There he meets Yuna, a tomboyish girl who lives with her grandmother, practices karate, and whose father works as a marine biologist. After initial friction, the two befriend each other, and Yuna and her grandmother bring Stitch into their home. They show him the Chitama Forest, filled with magical yōkai, and the Chitama Spiritual Stone, which can grant wishes if someone does 43 good deeds.

Stitch decides to wish to become the strongest being and ruler of the universe. Jumba and Pleakley later escape Saturn and join Stitch on Izayoi, with Jumba creating a good deed counter to track Stitch's progress.

Characters

Stitch, also known as Experiment 626, is an alien who crash-lands on Izayoi Island. With the help of Yuna, he discovers the Spiritual Stone and learns it can grant his wish to become ruler of the universe if he performs 43 good deeds. Jumba creates a Good Deed Counter to track his progress, but Stitch's mischievous tendencies often cause him to lose deeds. At the end of Stitch! ~The Mischievous Alien's Great Adventure~, he earns the 43 good deeds but decides that living with Yuna is better than ultimate power.

In Stitch! ~Best Friends Forever~, he moves with Yuna, Jumba, Pleakley, and Zuruko/Tigerlily to Okinawa New Town. In the English dub, Stitch speaks more fluently than in previous works, while the Japanese original maintains his flawed speech. Yuna Kamihara is a 10-year-old 4th grade elementary school student (11-year-old 5th grader in the third season) living on Izayoi Island. She is sweet, outgoing, tough, and feisty, studying karate learned from her grandfather, who gave her a special star as a good luck charm.

She lives with her grandmother; her father works as a marine biologist around Okinawa, and her mother died when Yuna was an infant in a typhoon. Her life changes when she meets Stitch, and the two become best friends, going on adventures as Stitch seeks to be good.

Production

In March 2008, Walt Disney Television International Japan began procuring its own animated shows, producing Stitch! with Madhouse. Seasons one and two were animated by Madhouse, and season three by Shin-Ei Animation. The pilot was showcased at the 2008 Tokyo International Anime Fair at the Madhouse booth, with character information also displayed at Disney's booth. Returning characters include Jumba Jookiba, Pleakley, Gantu, Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel, Experiment 625/Reuben, and Experiment 627 (in a second season episode), with a new villain named Delia in the third season.

Experiments 624/Angel, 221/Sparky, and 010/Felix appear in the first season due to their popularity from the American series. The series started on TV Tokyo on October 8, 2008, with an hour premiere of the first two episodes, airing weekly at 7:26 p.m., replacing Bleach. Okinawan culture is featured, with Yuna's karate replacing Lilo's hula. The series is influenced by children's manga and aimed at Japanese kids aged 4 to 14, containing darker and more mature content than Lilo & Stitch: The Series. The English dub used a different American English-speaking cast from the previous films and series.

Release

The anime series was broadcast on multiple networks, including Seven Network, 7mate, 7Two, and Disney Channel in Australia, Disney Channel in Singapore and India, Toon Disney in Italy, TV3 and TV2 in Malaysia, TV5 in the Philippines, RTÉ Two in Ireland, and Disney Cinemagic in the United Kingdom. Its first season started airing in English on the Australian Disney Channel on December 4, 2009, followed by Disney Channel Asia on December 19, 2009. Latin America’s Disney Channel premiered the first season in American Spanish on May 2, 2010, with the second season arriving on June 6, 2011, and the third on August 20, 2012.

Finland’s Disney Channel began showing the first season on June 7, 2010, with Finnish subtitles over the English dub. Other Scandinavian countries also aired it on Disney Channel, while the UK had it on Disney Cinemagic and Italy on Toon Disney. The Dutch version appeared on Disney XD Netherlands, Disney Channel Netherlands, and Disney Channel in Belgium. In the United States, Disney XD started airing the series on October 24, 2011, but pulled it after just five days, leaving only five episodes broadcast there.

Japan received several DVD box set releases. On Disney+, the complete series and both post-series specials are available in Japan and Singapore, with each special split into two parts and listed under season three. English-translated subtitles were added to all episodes on August 12, 2022, though access remains limited to Japan and Singapore.