History Animation / StitchAndAi

** Ai, who is still affected by the loss of her and her sister's parents the year prior, is suddenly told by her aunt that she will be moving away from her older sister and her home in the mountains to live in the city, despite her protests.

* MacGuffinSuperPerson: Stitch himself is wanted by two warring factions of space criminals because, with the knowledge of [[spoiler:his metamorphosis program]] in mind, they want to use him to win the space war. The United Galactic Federation, on the other hand, wants to retrieve him to prevent that.

The series debuted with the Mandarin dub on Creator/{{CCTV}}-1 and CCTV-14 on March 27, 2017, running through April 6. It made its English debut on Creator/DisneyChannel Asia [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYYWOhIHJ5Y on February 5, 2018]], and all episodes of the show aired throughout that month, finishing on the 27th. The series made its American debut on the [=DisneyNow=] service on December 1, 2018, with all but the ninth episode ("The Phoenix") released for free viewing for everyone living in the United States, including those without a TV provider. However, it was removed from the service by June 2019. The show also ended up being the shortest-lived TV entry in the ''Lilo & Stitch'' franchise, as only one thirteen-episode season was ever produced despite [[LeftHanging a major lingering plot thread]].

* EvilVersusEvil: Two rival factions of space criminals, the Jaboodies and the Woolagongs, are fighting over Stitch so either of them can win a war and take over the galaxy. Both of their factions are equal in strength and are locked in a stalemate, and they both want Stitch so they can force him to [[spoiler:use his metamorphosis program to]] destroy their enemies on their behalf.

* MateOrDie: A variant not involving death; in the fifth episode "Spirals", Jumba creates a dragon that becomes disobedient. He then realizes that it needs a mate or it will turn evil for a century. Thus, Jumba creates a mate for the dragon.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Jaboodies and the Woolagongs' fight over Stitch in the first episode cause him to break free and escape them.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: In the second episode, Aunt Daiyu says she doesn't believe Ai is getting a proper education at her rural school, so Jiejie takes her aunt there to prove her wrong. By the time they arrive, they find Ai standing in the middle of a destroyed classroom and her teacher Mr. Liu dazed and confused (a result of her and Stitch's fight with an alien that possessed Mr. Liu). From there, Daiyu gives Ai an hour to prepare to move to the city.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Ai is ''very'' similar to Lilo personality-wise. Also, Jiejie is a lot like Nani (although Ai's sister is not as stressed out as Lilo's sister), and Dahu (Jiejie's boyfriend) is a lot like David Kawena (Nani's boyfriend).

Upon reentering Earth's atmosphere, he lands in China's Huangshan mountains where he meets Wang Ai Ling, a young Chinese girl who lives with her older sister Jiejie in the mountains. The sisters lost [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest their parents]] roughly a year prior to the events of this series. They had just been told by the two sisters' snooty, mountain-hating, [[TerrifiedOfGerms mysophobe]] aunt Daiyu that she will move Ai out of the mountains and into the big city, believing Jiejie to be incapable of being Ai's guardian and that the city is not only "cleaner" but also better for Ai's personal growth into a "proper lady". But the mountain-loving sisters are resistant to the idea, especially as their family have lived in the mountains for generations. When Stitch and Ai meet, they quickly bond, with Ai becoming truly happy for the first time since the loss of her parents, and she takes Stitch into her family as her new "pet". From there, the two help each other deal with their problems; Stitch--along with Jumba and Pleakley later on after they are sent by the United Galactic Federation to rescue Stitch, only to stay to keep five eyes on him--helps Ai stay in the mountains, while she helps him ward off the Jaboodies and the Woolagongs, who are still going after him and will not stop until one side gains control of 626 and use him to win the war.

The series made its English debut on Creator/DisneyChannel Asia [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYYWOhIHJ5Y on February 5, 2018,]] and all thirteen episodes of the show aired throughout that month. The series made its American debut on the [=DisneyNow=] service on December 1, 2018, with all but the ninth episode ("The Phoenix") released for free viewing for everyone living in the United States, including those without a TV provider. However, it was removed from the service by June 2019.

* OffModel: There are a lot of moments where Stitch's infamous {{ear notch}}es swap positions, appearing mirrored from where they should be. He's also missing the markings on the backs of his ear tips.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: When Stitch appears in front of Ai after reentering Earth's atmosphere, his body slows down and hovers just above the ground in front her for a few moments before he suddenly regains consciousness and flops down to the ground. He's also surrounded by a blue aura during this time.
* AsYouKnow: The Grand Council scene in "Gotcha!" has the Grand Councilwoman and Captain Gantu relay information about Stitch to Jumba and Pleakley, not only relaying past moments in the franchise (primarily as depicted in the original film and the creation of 626 scene in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch2StitchHasAGlitch''), but also to provide backstory as to why Stitch is being sought after in this series, especially with the newly-added detail of [[spoiler:the metamorphosis program]].

** When Jumba puts Stitch in a containment capsule to take him back to the United Galactic Federation, Ai completely breaks down over the prospect of being separated from Stitch. Jiejie angrily and passionately argues to Jumba and Pleakley that her sister never forgets those she loves and Stitch should continue living with Ai. Jumba then decides to release Stitch and lets him stay with her. He and Pleakley also stick around to keep an eye on the experiment, of course.

** Stitch has been captured by an evil alien faction who plan to use him to win a war against a rival alien faction, who just so happen to also want and use him for the same thing. Although he manages to escape them for now, he still ends up far from his home in Kauaʻi [[spoiler:and--as revealed in the sixth episode--also lost much of his memories of his old life there when he re-entered Earth's atmosphere]].

** {{Subverted|Trope}} in "Tell the World" when Stitch shows that his can grow quills around his head to make himself look scarier. He does this at random when Ai presents her town's shishi for her video, but she says he's not scary and he retracts the quills back into himself.

* NotWhatItLooksLike: In the second episode, Aunt Daiyu says she doesn't believe Ai is getting a proper education at her rural school, so Jiejie takes her aunt there to prove her wrong. By the time they arrive, they find Ai standing in the middle of a destroyed classroom and her teacher Mr. Liu dazed and confused (a result from her and Stitch's fight with an alien that possessed Mr. Liu). From there, Daiyu gives Ai an hour to prepare to move to the city.

* SequelNonEntity: Even though this show features brand-new experiments, '''''none''''' of the previously-seen experiments besides Stitch himself return in this show. Not even fellow major experiments Reuben (625) or Angel (624) appear. Although there were talks of the classic experiments making their return for a second season of this series, a second season was never produced.

* TheTeaser: Every episode opens with Ai in voiceover either providing some backstory for her or Stitch, [[PreviouslyOn recapping what happened in previous episodes]], or establishing what's going to be the plot for the current episode. All of them, save the last episode, end with her saying, "And this is the story of Stitch & Ai."

* WeWillMeetAgain: [[spoiler:After their defeat in the last episode, the Jaboodies' lead scientist makes it clear to Jumba that while they lost the battle, they will come back for Stitch again now that they know how his Metamorphosis Program works. This is unlikely to happen since the show ended without being approved for a second season.]]

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: As the show is partly inspired by Myth/ChineseMythology, it features [[https://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/b/bf/Stitch_%26_Ai_promotion.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170402225941 a group of Chinese dragons]] created by Jumba based on what he read in ancient scrolls.

* NameAndName: This time around Stitch is first-billed and the deuteragonist is second, but only in English for the {{pun|BasedTitle}}. The Chinese title also counts but follows in the franchise's tradition of Stitch being second.

* PunBasedTitle: Ai is pronounced the same as the English letter and pronoun "I", and Ai ends every ColdOpen (except for the final episode) with, "And this is the story of Stitch & Ai," to emphasize the point.

** {{Retcon}}: This particular revision also causes this to past works. [[spoiler:According to the United Galactic Federation's analysts, Stitch is "too small" to be capable of destroying cities, hence why Jumba programmed the metamorphosis code in Stitch, which makes the experiment capable of destroying entire planets and even star systems]]. However, the ''Lilo & Stitch: The Series'' episode [[Recap/LiloAndStitchTheSeriesS1E29ShortStuff "Short Stuff"]] directly contradicts this series by showing that Stitch is actually ''less'' capable of (intentional) destruction [[spoiler:as a giant]] as he becomes a lot clumsier [[spoiler:when he's enlarged (even though [[ShrinkRay Stitch's method of enlargement back then]] differs from the method seen in this series)]], and Jumba explicitly tells Stitch with full sincerity that he was "made to operate at peak efficiency [[spoiler:only at [his] exact, ''original'' [smaller] size]]".[[note]]Besides that, a deleted version of the original film's prologue showed exactly how Stitch ''is'' capable of destroying cities [[spoiler:at his small size]]; not only is he strong, durable, and hypercognitive, he's quick and nimble as well, all of which are well-established in the officially shown animated canon.[[/note]]

* ResizedVocals: When Stitch becomes enormous after his city-destroying mechanism kicks in, his voice gets deeper and more gravelly the more he grows.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute[=/=]{{Expy}}: Ai is ''very'' similar to Lilo personality-wise. Also, Jiejie is a lot like Nani (although Ai's sister is not as stressed out as Lilo's sister), and Dahu (Jiejie's boyfriend) is a lot like David Kawena (Nani's boyfriend).