The Phoenix

In the days long before Japan was a unified country, the powerful Queen Himiko of the Yamatai Clan seeks immortality. To obtain this, she must drink the blood of the phoenix, a bird of legend that scorches the earth and anyone that dares to touch it. She sends a fleet to the country of Matsuro, where the phoenix is resting and has her troops wipe out the people that live there. One boy, Nagi, survives and is adopted by the strong Yamatai general, Sarutahiko. The two begin to form a close bond while Himiko becomes more desperate for the phoenix. Several more paths cross during this turbulent time: a young doctor from Yamatai whose loyalty becomes conflicted when he weds a Matsuro woman; a barbarian conqueror who becomes attached to a beautiful dancer forced to wear ugly makeup to avoid being raped; a proud hunter from the Matsuro clan sent by the Yamatai clan who pursues the phoenix not for his people but for sport. These stories all converge with one goal: to obtain the legendary phoenix.
~~ Based on the first story arc of Osamu Tezuka's decades-spanning epic fantasy manga series.