Netflix has uploaded an original anime short titled The Dog and The Boy on YouTube. The anime was produced by the Netflix Anime Creators’ Base with Production I.G and WIT Studio credited for support.

The video, which follows a robot dog and its relationship with a bespectacled boy, features the song “AINOUTA” by sasakure.UK feat. AI-Code “M.” Ryotarou Makihara (Vampire in the Garden director) served as director, storyboarder, key animator, and art director. Concept artist Mathias Demongeot provided the character designs and CG animation.

Some of the other credits include rinna Co., Ltd as AI Development company, Koji Tanaka (The Deer King) as composite director, and Yuko Fujita as color supervisor.

Netflix said in a newsroom post that the production of The Dog and The Boy, which began in 2022, ran in parallel with efforts to develop anime background generation tools. 

Anime Creators’ Base was set up in 2021 with the stated goal of providing long-term support for anime production. It is located located in Netflix’s Tokyo office. Variety reported at the time that it was meant to “help steer creators with developing conceptual art.” A video tour showed off the space’s Writers’ Garage, Designers’ Garage, and The Lab, with the third room being intended for testing technologies like VR.