It is an animation version of the original story by Tezuka Osamu that depicts the cruelty of love through the fate of spacemen destined to drift through the universe after losing their mother ship.. 
(Source: AniDB)

Based on Tezuka Osamu's original work portraying life based on the myth of Yamatotakeru.

"All things are born and all things die. That is the law of heaven." According to legend, the Bird of Fire called the Phoenix is the eternal spirit of life, death and rebirth. She oversees the cycle of reincarnation and the rising and falling of civilizations and species. Those who can obtain her blood will be granted eternal life, while to others she can grant infinite wisdom, or eternal suffering. Throughout history, from the dawn of civilization to the extinction of the human race, those human souls touched by the Phoenix have hunted her over and over in multiple reincarnations, and their actions in one life determine or reflect the sins and sufferings of other lifetimes. (Source: AnimeNewsNetwork) Note: This is an incomplete series due to Tezuka's death.

Hi no Tori is a collection of stories that all have something in common. The Phoenix, whose blood is believed to give an eternal life to one who drinks it. Therefore many seek to kill it, but as the Phoenix of the tale, it's reborn from the ashes. Stories take place in future and the past, where humans fight with each other as always, and everyone is afraid to die. But still, every story teaches a lesson: Life is beginning of an eternity, an never-ending cycle. 
(Source: Anime News Network)

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