"Hello – Goodbye"note ("你好黄山"; "Hello Huangshan") is the debut episode of Stitch & Ai. It first aired with a Mandarin dub on March 27, 2017, while the original English version first aired on February 5, 2018.
A young, orphaned Chinese girl from the Huangshan mountains named Ai is about to move from her mountain home to live with her aunt Daiyu in the city, much to the girl's dismay. But as she prepares for the move, she finds something falling from the sky—a little blue alien named Stitch. As Stitch and Ai meet and become fast friends, they find themselves chased down by two alien factions who each want him for their own evil deeds.
In Galactic Quadrant 023, Section 078, Area 66, the little blue alien Experiment 626, or Stitch, is being held captive by a reptilian-like alien faction called the Jaboodies in their battle cruiser ship. Their leader Commander Wombat tells Stitch, "[They're] all going to be friends now," and that he will be leading their supreme invasion against their enemies, the platypus-like Woolagongs. Suddenly, the ship is under attack by the Woolagongs themselves. The Woolagongs blast a hole in the Jaboodie Battle Cruiser and board it. Blasting their way into the room where Stitch is held, the Woolagongs, led by Commander Platypus, try to take Stitch for themselves. But Stitch retaliates, fighting back against both factions. He tries to run off on the outside of the ship, but the Jaboodies and the Woolagongs surround him through the broken portholes. With nowhere else to go, Stitch decides to jump from the ship to the nearby planet it's orbiting... Earth. As Stitch falls, becoming surrounded by some strange energy as he re-enters Earth's atmosphere, he recalls some of his past memories as he calmly awaits his fate.
In the Huangshan mountains of China, two orphaned sisters named Ai and Jiejie are having an argument over the former being forced to move to the nearby city to live with their aunt Daiyu. As older sister Jiejie claims that Daiyu is just trying to help Ai, Daiyu arrives telling Ai how she is going to have a better life in the city, studying and learning how to become a "proper lady", and orders her to start packing her things. As Ai does so in her bedroom, she yells at Jiejie for not standing up for her and drives her out of the room by banging her drum, then breaks down in tears. She wipes her tears away when her friend Meiying enters the room saying that she heard about the apparent, now-confirmed rumors about Ai's move to the city. Ai hugs Meiying saying that she'll miss her, though Meiying tries to claim that they're not friends. Ai then notices an apparent falling star shining outside her window—in the middle of the day, no less—and runs up to see. Meiying tries to see for herself but then is swiftly escorted out by her mother, aunt, and grandmother, who aren't too fond of Ai. Though Ai tries to get back to her packing, she cannot resist getting a closer look and runs out of her house after the "star".
The "star" is actually a mostly unconscious little blue alien, who is surrounded by a glowing blue aura as he falls down to Earth. Ai eventually reaches a spot somewhere and the alien hovers in front of her. Curious about the floating alien, Ai touches him a few times until he regains consciousness and falls on top of her. The two bicker a bit after he gets off her, then after a moment of realization, they laugh from the silliness of it all. Ai asks the alien where did he come from, but he struggles to remember. She then asks his name, to which he says, "Stitch." "I'm Ai," she responds. Ai then asks Stitch, "How come you just came out of the sky?" He falls over, recalling his escape from the Jaboodies and Woolagongs, then recalls a shrine he saw in his memories. He then tells Ai, in just a few words, that he's searching for a shrine and it's important for him to find it. Ai tells him that there are lots of shrines in the mountains, but she has to get back home and get ready to leave with her aunt tomorrow. But Stitch convinces her to go up the mountains to one of the said shrines "one last time".
The two journey up the mountains to find a shrine, with Ai showing him all the things there are in the area. They eventually reach a shrine, but unfortunately, it's not the one Stitch is looking for. A monk then comes out of the shrine, inviting Stitch and Ai to come in. Ai is willing to ask him for help, but Stitch stops her from running in. He calls out the monk in Tantalog, who responds in kind, reveals himself as a Jaboodie soldier, and begins firing at them.
Stitch and Ai run away as they get fired upon by Jaboodies, finding a tour group crossing a rope bridge. Although Stitch is seemingly not convinced that the tour group is legitimate, Ai runs on the bridge (with Stitch following) to try to warn them about the evil aliens. But wait! While the tour guide is a human, it turns out that the tourists are actually Woolagong soldiers. One of the soldiers slaps the tour guide off the bridge (who mercifully catches on a pine tree), and Stitch and Ai try to run off, only for the Jaboodies to catch up to them. Stitch breaks the wooden planks beneath him and Ai, and they both fall through just before the warring aliens start blasting each other. He bounces off the ground below and catches Ai to break her fall, and they both land on a ledge.
Although it seemed that Stitch and Ai lost the alien soldiers, they suddenly notice several Woolagongs climbing up to get them. Since they (or at least Ai) can't climb back up, Stitch then grabs a fallen plank, puts Ai on it, and uses it to sled both of them down. They speed past Woolagongs while sliding down the mountain, with Stitch fighting back against the soldiers along the way. By the end of his and Ai's ride, he's defeated twenty Woolagong soldiers. The soldiers then retreat and teleport away on Commander Platypus's orders, and Stitch and Ai have a laugh. Ai tells Stitch that he must've saved her "about six times".
As the new friends arrive back at Ai's home, Daiyu comes out asking Ai where has she been but gets freaked out by Stitch's "ugly" appearance. She calls out for Jiejie, who runs out only to see Ai playing with what seems to be a blue ball and assumes her aunt is just overstressed. Daiyu protests, but decides to calm down and declares that she and Ai are leaving "at once". As Daiyu and Jiejie walk back inside, Stitch uncurls from his ball form, calling Daiyu a "stupidhead" for calling him ugly. Ai sadly tells Stitch that she's going to have to say goodbye to him, even though they barely just met, as she will be taken away from everything she knows and loves, including her sister and the mountains. She then writes "再见" (zàijiàn, "goodbye") on the ground to emphasize the point. But then he crosses out her writing and writes "你好" (nǐ hǎo, "hello") to counter her farewell. "Ai belongs in the mountains," he says to her, "We'll find a way to stay. Yeah. We'll find a way."
Ai happily hugs Stitch, grateful to have a new friend who is willing to help her stay in the one true place where she belongs.
Tropes featured in this episode:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Stitch is rendered as a 3D model at one point during his fall towards Ai.
- Artistic License – Physics: When Stitch appears in front of Ai after reentering Earth's atmosphere, his body slows down and hovers just above the ground in front of 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.
- Boarding Party: After blasting a hole in the Jaboodies' battle cruiser, the Woolagongs fire grappling hooks from their main ship around the hole and zip down inside.
- Downer Beginning:
- We first see Stitch having been captured by an evil alien army who are trying to force him to work for them, and he only manages to escape them because another evil alien army who want him for their own misdeeds broke into the first army's ship, resulting in a shootout between one another that ended up freeing him in the process. Even then, neither army is giving up on their separate missions to get Stitch and are still pursuing him.
- Ai is first seen having an argument with her sister about her impending move to the city with their aunt, who comes in to explain her intentions on how she's going to raise Ai as a "proper lady", which basically amounts to "all work, no play, and your big sister will not be allowed to see you again lest she interrupts your development", and forces her to pack her belongings.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Or alien who pretends to be a dog. Stitch is able to correctly tell that the monk at the shrine he and Ai find is actually a Jaboodie in disguise just by smelling him from a distance.
- Mass Teleportation: After they're defeated, the Woolagongs are all teleported away to retreat at the push of a button from just one soldier's communication device.
- Megaton Punch: A Woolagong soldier slaps the tour guide so hard she falls off the bridge.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: When Stitch stops Ai from approaching the fake monk, angrily calling the "monk" an "ika patooka" (Tantalog for "stupidhead"):Ai: Don't be silly, Stitch. He can't talk your language!
"Monk": (pointing at Stitch) Chi-meeto!note Ha, ha! (shakes fist) Heegata no feebee!note
Ai: He can talk your language?! - Rope Bridge: Stitch and Ai get trapped in the middle of one, with Woolagongs on one side and Jaboodies on the other. Stitch breaks the planks underneath him and Ai, causing both of them to fall through to escape.
- Tears of Joy: Ai cries these and hugs Stitch in the very last scene when he tells her that he will help her find a way to stay living in the Huangshan mountains.
- Title Drop: In a way for the episode's English title. At the end of the episode, Ai tells Stitch that she will have to say goodbye and writes "再见" (zàijiàn), the Chinese word for "goodbye", in the dirt. Stitch responds by crossing out her 再见 and writing "你好" (nǐ hǎo), the Chinese word for "hello", in response. Hence, "Hello [Minus] Goodbye".
- You Are Fat: Stitch says, "Feeboogoo! Dinko te fabba!" (Tantalog for "Bring it on, you fatty!") and makes a disgusted spitting sound to the Jaboodie soldier disguised as a monk before the latter angrily takes off his disguise.
