Natsume Maya is reporting that a 13-episode anime series based on Osamu Tezuka's manga masterwork, Phoenix (Hi No Tori), is currently in production and will be broadcast in the spring of 2004.  Viz has published portions of Tezuka's 12-volume masterwork, in which each self-contained volume takes place in a different time period but deals with recurring characters and situations (see 'Manga's Premiere Artist at the Top of His Game').  The new Phoenix anime will feature some of Tezuka's favorite music, such as Beethoven, as well as ancient Chinese instruments on the soundtrack, and it will be broadcast in high-definition.

Portions of Tezuka's Phoenix series have been adapted for animation before, most notably in Space Firebird, a 122-minute anime feature produced in 1980.  Three other volumes of Hi No Tori formed the basis for 48-minute featurettes made in the 1980s by some of Japan's top anime creators at Madhouse Studio (an offshoot of Tezuka's Mushi Productions) including Rintaro's Phoenix Karma (1986), Toshio Harata's Phoenix Yamato (1987), and Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Phoenix Future (1988).