interesting snippet via Anime-AICN:
MediaBlasters has announced that their AnimeWorks label will be releasing the first DVD volume of the 2004 anime adaptation of “God Manga” Osamu Tezuka’s life’s work, Phoenix on October 30th.
Ryousuke Takahashi, a director known for his realistic sci-fi war anime such as Votoms, Gasaraki, Flag and Blue Gender, headed the series that was co-produced by Tezuka Productions and WNET New York. The anime selects a number of stories from Tezuka’s exploration of the patterns of human existence. That original opus was produced between 1956-89 and consisted of twelve largely stand-alone books which alternated between jumping forward and backwards in time to capture the story of the human species from the dawn of civilization to its end. Viz Media has been releasing the manga in North America.
The manga was previously adapted into the 1980 movie Phoenix 2772 – Space Firebird, the Rintaro (Metropolis, the X movie) directed 1986 movie The Phoenix: Chapter of Ho-o, and the 1987 one episode OVA The Phoenix: Chapter of Yamato.
The 13 episode series will be releases across three volume. Volume 2 will be released December 4th.
sounds intriguing.