Huggable blue alien buddy Stitch from Disney’s Lilo & Stitch is returning to Japanese televisions in an all-new one-hour TV anime special titled Stitch! to Suna no Wakusei (Stitch and the Planet of Sand) this June. Planet of Sand is a follow-up to three previous Stitch! TV series that aired in the country from 2008 to 2011.
In the Japanese series (the first two were produced by Walt Disney Animation Japan with Madhouse, the most recent with Shin-Ei Animation), a Japanese girl named Yuna befriends the alien instead of Lilo, and their adventures take place on a fictional island off the coast of Okinawa instead of Hawaii. The show also aired as dubbed versions on Disney channels in Australia, Asia, Latin America, across Europe and Scandinavia, and very briefly on Disney XD in the U.S. last year.
It is unclear whether Disney Animation Japan will again partner with Shin-Ei or Madhouse to produce this new special, which will force Stitch to leave Yuna and Earth behind to confront a planetary war on the sand planet of Katuna.
