Media Blasters has announced the October 30th release of Phoenix Volume One: Persistence of Time ($19.95 MSRP), the first in a series of three DVDs collecting the 13-episode Phoenix (Hi no Tori) anime series directed by Ryosuke Takahashi and co-produced in 2004 by Tezuka Productions and WNET New York.  The 2004 series, which Media Blasters is releasing under its Anime Works imprint, spans the various eras covered by Osamu Tezuka in his wide-ranging, 12-volume Phoenix manga, a series that he worked on from 1956-1989 and which is considered his magnum opus.

Viz Media is publishing the Phoenix manga here in the U.S. (Volume 10 came out in March).  Portions of Tezuka's philosophical epic were turned into anime before including the 1980 Hi no Tori 2772, directed by Taku Sugiyama; which was followed by Rintaro's  Phoenix: Karma (Hi no Tori Hoo Hen) in 1986; Toshio Hirata's Phoenix: Yamato (Hi no Tori Yamato Hen) in 1987; and Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Phoenix Space (Hi no Tori: Uchu Hen) in 1987.