We look at Stitch.

Anime  Lilo and Stitch 

       Flashing back to my Powerpuff Girls Z  lookback , I ended it with this line
             

         That's our lookback and tune  in next time when we find out that Lilo has left Stitch and now Stitch has  moved on to a different country and a new girl.

                       I knew what I was doing there, and was actually planning this much sooner than over 2 years later, but better late and well thought out then early and messy.  So the theme of this is related to that Powerpuff Girls Z  in that we are looking a another  American cartoon series being made into an anime.  I did like Powerpuff Girls Z  and think it was  a fun adaptation series , will this be the same?  (Who Knows?)

        "Lilo and Stitch" is a popular Disney movie that came and 2002 and it was popular and then spawned sequels and a television series.  So after the final episode and TV movie came out in 2006 , Lilo and Stitch kind of just stopped , but still popular there was nothing more the whole thing, then again that's not a bad thing.  But apparently, there were other plans.

       Walt Disney Television  International (so at least, someone didn't just try to make an anime knock off) , TV Tokyo , and Madhouse (For those that aren't anime inclined they are a major studio in the anime business)  all go together to create "Stitch!".  This series ran from 2008 to 2011 with 83 episodes and 3 specials.

       Going back to "Powerpuff Girls Z" a second, that series took the American show and aged up the characters, made them not sisters, not related to the professor, and normal girls that happened to get hit with 'z-rays'.  That's a change , now back to my line from the end that started this, "Lilo has left Stitch and has moved to a different country and a new girl.", that's what this anime is in a short amount of words. 

    In episode 1   this whole series kind of wipes out the whole thing "Lilo and Stitch" was about , family, even as the series showed a weird family like Lilo's with her sister being her parental figure, and also having 3 aliens in the family. That  they are family and always stick together. This episode  obliterates that.    In fact that means the whole series obliterates that. It's not an alternate take of L&S it's like a continuation. Jumba mentions that Stitch is running away because as he says, "...just because little girl,Lilo, has new boyfriend now and is all washed up with 6-2-6 is no reason to act bad. "   So yes Stitch left Lilo because Lilo has a new boyfriend and isn't paying attention to Stitch. (What?)  That's what I got from that part , but  I'll say something else down later on that frames this differently. (so stick with us , please)

Yuna and Stitch / Copyright Disney and Madhouse 

          Now that new girl part.  There's a girl named Yuna  who lives In Japan or close enough to it  and who is 10 years old (ages up to 11 in one of the seasons) and likes karate.  She's an alright and actually a good character.   So Stitch crashes into her Island part of Japan  and eventually the end up meeting in this episode.  She tries to "arrest" Stitch  then they fall in the water. This series does remember that Stitch can't swim and of course Yuna saves him.  Later there's a thunderstorm and the find a shelter and she's afraid of thunder. Stitch shows once again how sweet he is and comforts her. ( awww)  After the storm , Yuna's grandmother finds them and there's a stone that can grant wishes and Stitch wants to be ruler of the universe. ( Ehhh I wouldn't mind that) The grandmother tells Stitch that he has to prove he is worthy by doing good deeds.  Stitch decides he will stay them and Yuna is going to help  They are also going with the dog cover story thing.  We got a new phrase to replace Ohana  , it's  Ichariba Choodee  as Yuna says it means "Meet ones cousins forever". Also poor Ghantu doesn't get a break , at the end of "Leroy and Stitch" he gets to become part of the Galactic Federation but apparently he gets dishonorably discharged before this series starts and he's back to working for Hamsterveil.


     Episode 2: Are Jumba and Pleakly in this series  ?   I am not going to give everything that happens in an episode just to make this easier. But yes Jumba and Pleakly are in this series.  But first, Yuna does start her helping Stitch with his good deeds.  Yuna does stay with her grandma but that's because her father is away she gets a postcard from him and he won't be coming home when he planned because he got a new job.  Jumba and Pleakly are tasked with spying on Stitch to make sure he acts correctly.  As I said before, this series has this it's "arc" like Lilo and Stitch the Series' task was for them to find the other experiments made by Jumba.  Jumba made Stitch a  good deeds counter. (We are getting our 100 deeds for Eddie McDowd mixed up  in our Lilo Yuno and Stitch)  I am watching the dub for reference but Stitch has really upped his English speaking  (or Japanese in the other version) or something.  They didn't get the same voice actor of Stitch to speak in this series for the dub, but he did sound close. (Still minus 5 pts for not getting the original voice)  Jumba and Pleakly decide to stay and make their own guest house to work with Stitch and help him too. (Got most of the old gang back together)  Also, the voices for these characters are different than their movie series counterparts.

Yes they are. / Copyright Disney/ Madhouse

     Random line: Yuna's Grandmother doesn't seemed phased by all this E.T stuff


more after the jump


    Now the important question:  Does Lilo make an apparence at all in this anime?  Well yes, but we have to wait for  season 3 (yes season 3!)  also called "Sitich! Best Friends forever!"  This has spoilers so if you want to watch the show  umm skip to two  paragraphs.  It's episode 23 of season 3 called "Lilo" or "Reunion with Lilo".    Also season 3 seems very different than season 1.  Stitch thinks he sees Lilo, though the only problem is that she doesn't look like she aged from when the audience last saw ever , even though she has a boyfriend or something and that would imply she's older but alright.  Stitch decides to go find her , and finds her. (Wow that was quick)  She recognizes Stitch and they hug. (what?!)  Lilo has a nanny too. (what?)  Lilo and Stitch spend the day together like old times (hey we got some Lilo in our Stitch!)   and Pleakly sees her and also is at least more confused on how she hasn't aged but he attests that it was a wormhole. Yuna wonders why Stitch didn't wait for her after school and she follows Pleakly and over hears him to talking to Jumba about Lilo.  I am going to take this as  Stitch and the others never ever told  Yuna about Lilo. (You mean that someone who apparently was so important to Stitch that he ran away when he felt hurt wasn't important enough for him to tell Yuna? Why?)   Jumba also wonders why she is a young girl too (he's an evil genius so still a genius)  but again why does that girl look so much like her?  Jumba also says Yuna might not happy that Stitch's old gal (sorry) has made an appearance.   In "Lilo and Stitch : The Series" the whole goal was that Lilo and Stitch were finding all the experiments (remember he's 626)  before Hamsterveil and help them find their one true thing i life, well this series said ha ha ha ha and Hamsterveil has them and uses them for evil. (uuuugh)

    Hamsterveil uses the morphing experiment to morph into little Lilo too because plans.  Pleakly tells Yuna about Lilo and Stitch's life with her. (Sure waited a long time)  He also explains that Lilo did get older (they even show her age) and to go away to school. She promised that after 4 years they would see each other but didn't and he got on his space ship and crashed landed to Yuna.  (Cut-- in episode 1 remember this? "...just because little girl,Lilo, has new boyfriend now and is all washed up with 6-2-6 is no reason to act bad. " Jumba said that as he was chasing Stitch so either Jumba never told Pleakly that part or the writers decided that was out of  character and said this was better.)  Pleakly and Jumba  tell Yuna that she is as much of their family as Lilo.  Fake Lilo (the one from Hansterveil) appears and eventually traps Stitch. (Now again the Lilo that helped capture Stitch is not the one from earlier , but Pleakly and Jumba think that's why she was same age)  Yuna, Pleakly and Jumba stop Gantu  with food and make him trip getting Stitch back.  Lilo escapes and her nanny and  runs to Stitch and Yuna.  Then Lilo runs into her mom (yes it all adds up , Lilo has a Daughter and or she knows how to clone)   Lilo (great I confused myself) doesn't believe her daughter. Stitch chases after the bus.  Lilo and Stitch finally re unite as she's on her way to her flight. She explains she would have met Stitch on the beach that day she promised but Nani was having a baby. (Should have called or something.)  She did come as soon as she could and he had already left.  (great now I'm sad)  They get a hug in. (I'm not crying leave me alone) The whole  scene makes even Hamsterviel who's spying, cry.     I'm gonna expand on something related in the next paragraph  but, for this part Lilo and her daughter get on the airplane without inviting Stitch fits her character too, that she knows Stitch has Yuna now and it would be wrong for her just to take him back because of that.  Also with season 3 Stitch and Yuna have made a bond with each other that we can see in the series that there is a relationship that  would be hard to break up too.

                             Decided to the images as links so that they are spoilers for those who don't want to be spoiled.   (Click here) 

         I'm glad we got a resolution to why Lilo and Stitch were separated , but they sure waited a long time to tell  us.  Non spoiler version : I'm not sure what the original Japanese version of episode 1 said during the line that we got in English about Lilo running away with boyfriend, because it's really hard to find a sub of this show. (weird) But with some research and a couple sources say that he didn't say that in English meaning that this show maybe didn't obliterate  Lilo's characterization just to have Stitch be somewhere else. I say that here, because  I wanted to talk about the episode she did show up in first that clarifies. (there's a reason it took me two years to make this post.)  What I am getting at is , if you watch the first episode don't  let that line get to you because that's not what happened, just weird dubbing. (Disney? )
 
    I'm gonna cut and give some thoughts on the series from  the parts I've talked about. (warning: this will have a mention of something in a past Lilo and Stitch media)  So in  "Leroy and Stitch"  Gantu is given a great thing he's turned around from working for evil and doing well , this series shredded that for "heh we need a villain" Now they could have made a new villain or used Hamsterveil with a new person. (We did get Stitch having  a new person) I think that was kind of unfair to the character to just wipe that away. It's like they were afraid of changing some things but others were  like we change the heck out of that, but why?


       Some of the plots in this series because, I am not reviewing all 83 episodes (I might say this again)  are interesting  like Yuna and Stitch traveling to an  alternate universe or going to Tokyo Disneyland. (Well that opens up a lot of weird can of worms, like what is their universe's Lilo and Stitch?) The series also goes from the plot of having good deeds to Stitch  and Yuna having to do what original series did in a way, help the experiments get off being evil and trying to be their normal lives.  Season  3 changes the setting a little because Grandma is getting older (by a year?)  so, Yuna and Stitch move to a new town called NewTown (sigh)  and move in with Yuna's cousin.  Also in season 3 they changed from Madhouse to Shin-Ei animation who've worked on many things and especially Doraemon.

        Yuna.  With this series I decided to also see what some others have to say about this series looking around the net for anyone who decided to talk about this series. The one big thing that bothers people about this series is Yuna because she's not Lilo.  To me I don't think she's a bad character and they didn't make her exactly like Lilo because that would have been stupid.  They gave her a personality of her own.  Stitch and Yuna help  each other  in their own way and  they have their own relationship that's not like Lilo and Stitch have which is nice.

     I'm not going to review all 83 episodes because that would make this long (longer)  so, I am going to end it here, and give my review thoughts. This anime has a broken base, there are Lilo and Stitch don't like this series for some valid and not valid reasons.  Since I think  Lilo and Stitch the movies and series ended up very well there wasn't a need for this series ,but I think it wasn't bad I like the humor , action , and characters.  I'm happy they kept Jumba and Pleakly  because they are honestly a great duo, Yuna isn't a Lilo clone and has her faults and style, Stitch is still Stitch the only disappointment is what I mentioned above about Gantu. The animation does fit more like Lilo and Stitch and not full anime style like PPGZ did. It's also that the series did respect Lilo and Stitch (even if that stupid line in the first episode exists) and their relationship.  It has it's sweet moments there are moments I literally did smile or tear up.( I did't write about these episodes because, 83 episodes) I liked this series as a person who does like Lilo and Stitch , but if you don't that's alright I can understand why the many reasons why.

   That's our look at Stitch! Tune in next time when we look at the anime version  of "My Life as a Teenage Robot"  Where Jenny/XJ-9 is now a giant mech  (this is probably real).