Trivia / Phoenix (1954)

• Died During Production: Tezuka intended to close the series with an arc that took place in the present and somehow tied all the series' motifs together. However, he died well before reaching that point, leaving behind only the synopsis for a storyline, Earth, which was to take place in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, 1938. Further rubbing salt in the wound is that just before he died, a random nurse forbade him to do further work and went so far as to take away his writing materials against his protests.
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: This took decades to create. Tezuka was unable to completely finish it before his death.
• What Could Have Been: Tezuka's notes included a rough outline for a chapter entitled The Land, taking place in Japanese-occupied China shortly before World War II. Starring Rock and Saruta as part of a Japanese military expedition to find the Phoenix, Saruta would have eventually turned against the government and been executed by firing squad, as seen in the third volume, Space, when the Phoenix is showing that era's Saruta visions of his other incarnations' endless suffering.

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