After crash-landing his spaceship on Earth, the genetic experiment known as Stitch, or Experiment 626, finds himself not in Hawaii but on the fictional Izayoi Island off the coast of Okinawa, Japan. There, he meets Yuna Kamihara, a spirited and strong-willed ten-year-old girl who practices karate and lives with her grandmother, Obaa. On this island, Stitch discovers the Chitama Spiritual Stone, a mystical artifact that can grant him his deepest desire: to become the strongest being in the universe. However, the stone will only grant this wish after he performs a specific number of good deeds, which his creator, the scientist Dr. Jumba Jookiba, helps him track with a Good Deed Counter. Joined by Jumba and the one-eyed Earth expert Agent Pleakley, who have been assigned to monitor him, Stitch begins a new life on the island, constantly battling his mischievous nature as his count goes up and down.

The manga follows the episodic adventures of Stitch and Yuna as they navigate school, family, and local traditions, all while Stitch works toward his goal. Their daily life includes everything from fishing and making mochi to participating in karate tournaments and attempting to bake cakes, with Stitch’s chaotic alien instincts often turning simple tasks into large-scale mayhem. The series introduces a cast of island residents, including Yuna’s snobbish rival Piko (Penny in English dubs), who leads the black team in karate, and later Sae (Sasha), a fashion-loving transfer student who becomes Yuna’s close friend. Stitch also interacts with Kijimunaa, a cowardly forest spirit from Okinawan folklore, and reconnects with Angel (Experiment 624), a pink female experiment who is his love interest.

A significant narrative arc involves the arrival of Zuruko (Tigerlily), Yuna’s cruel cousin who blackmails her into doing chores, leading to a change in living situation in the third season when Yuna and Stitch move to Okinawa New Town. This new urban environment introduces new rivals like Reika (Jessica), who has a crush on a popular soccer player named Takumi (Hiroman) who secretly dresses in maid costumes for his sisters. Throughout these adventures, Stitch faces off against recurring antagonists from the franchise, including the diminutive but ambitious Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel and the hulking Captain Gantu, who frequently attempt to capture him and disrupt his efforts to be good. Despite his original programming as a destructive bioweapon, Stitch slowly learns the value of community and friendship, with his bond with Yuna becoming the true core of his story.

A distinct manga, Stitch & the Samurai by Hiroto Wada, presents an alternate continuity where a malfunction during Stitch’s escape sends him not only through space but also through time, crash-landing in Japan’s violent Sengoku period. There, he is discovered by the battle-weary samurai warlord Meison Yamato, who is so taken by the creature’s cuteness that he abandons his military campaigns to dote on him, taking the little blue tanuki as a curious new member of his clan.