Phoenix [Shojo Club] (Manga)

Also known as 火の鳥 [少女クラブ] (Hi no Tori [Shojo Kurabu])

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Phoenix [Shojo Club] (1956-57), Tezuka’s reboot of the Phoenix concept, came a mere one year after Phoenix [Manga Shonen] (1954-55) came to an abrupt end in May 1955.  As the follow-up to Princess Knight [Shojo Club] (1953-56), it was serialized in Shojo Club from May 1956 to December 1957.

What it’s about

The story opens in Heaven, in a scene remarkably similar to that of Princess Knight [Shojo Club] (1953-56).  The latest batch of souls are deciding to accept either reincarnation or nirvana.  However, with the help of a well-meaning soul, the legendary Phoenix escapes from her heavenly cage and, without God’s knowledge or permission, secretly makes her way down to Earth – specifically to Egypt, in the time of the pharaohs.

Chapter of ‘Egypt’

In ancient Egypt, a beautiful young slave girl named Daia accidentally overhears the wicked queen’s plot to poison and assassinate her husband, the Pharaoh, and snatch power for herself.  Garo, the queen’s lion and faithful servant, is sent to kill Daia, but the girl’s angelic voice charms the heart of the mighty beast and she escapes death.

Daia soon crosses paths with the queen’s step-son (and her chief rival for the throne), and, upon learning that his father lies dying, Prince Club takes it upon himself to find the mythical Phoenix and use its blood to save the Pharaoh.  With Daia in tow, Prince Club succeeds in tracking the bird down, but finds out that even a well-placed arrow cannot kill the Phoenix.  However, the pair eventually stumble across the Phoenix‘s nest and end up saving her only egg from a torrential flood.  In gratitude, the Phoenix presents them both with a portion of her blood – granting them both a 3,000 year lifespan.

With that, Club and Daia, by now hopelessly in love, return to the kingdom.  Upon learning that he is now the Pharaoh, Club abolishes slavery and announces that the now newly-freed Daia will be his wife.  Yet, despite the royal proclamation, certain elements within the kingdom refuse to let such a thing happen – chief among them the former queen.  Several plots ensue, Club is eventually murdered by his step-mother, and Daia dies mourning him.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix, destined to die at the moment of her baby’s birth, asks the trio of Popo, the rabbit, Noro, the turtle, and Yota the fox, to watch over he soon-to-hatch chick.  With that, the egg hatches, a baby Phoenix named Tyrol is born, and soon after the mother Phoenix goes up in flames.

Chapter of ‘Greece’

Despite appearances, Club and Daia are actually still alive.  Washed away in a flood, their unconscious bodies are discovered by two warring Greek city-nations – Club by Sparta and Daia by Troy.  They awake from their long sleep and, as fate would have it, meet once again in the Spartan palace.  Despite having lost their memories, the pair find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other – eventually deciding that they must have been siblings in a previous life.

However, their reunion is short-lived.  When the Queen of Sparta, jealous that Daia’s beauty surpasses even that of her much-storied daughter Helena, imprisons Daia in the dungeon.  In an act of retaliation, Prince Hector of Troy kidnaps Helena and sets off a war, known as the “War of Troy”, in the process.

Against the backdrop of war, Prince Hector’s younger brother, Prince Paris goes on a quest to prove his worth and capture the Phoenix.  Although Club and Daia are again briefly reunited on the battlefield, a duel between Prince Hector and the Spartan general Achilles separates them.  Hector is killed and Achilles makes off with Daia, despite Club’s protests.  However, Achilles is felled by Paris’ well-placed arrow shot (to the heel, naturally), and Daia manages to escape.

With the Spartan general dead, a large wooden horse ends up at the gates of Troy, and the Trojans, believing it to be an offering of peace, drag it inside the city walls.  Of course this is a ruse, and the Trojans are attacked by Ulysses and his troops.  In the ensuing battle, this time Daia is the one to die first and Club, in his grief, dies mourning her.

Chapter of ‘Rome’

Some 300 years later, Club and Daia are once again returned to the land of the living – this time in ancient Rome.  The pair are discovered, enshrined in a Greek tomb by a young soldier of the invading Roman Empire.  Bringing the two “corpses” back with him, it takes another forty five years before they awake.  The, by this time, old man tells the amnesic pair that they are his son and daughter and they begin happily working in the family bakery.

However, Daia’s beauty soon come to the attention of Prince Neboketas, the heir to the Roman Empire.  When Daia refuses his advances, Neboketas decides to arrest her and Club and sentences them to face the lions.  However, Daia’s previous meeting with one of the lions comes back to save her, as the lion remembers her previous kindness and keeps his peers at bay.  Thwarted, Neboketas is forced, as is custom, to grant Daia one wish for her “victory” over the lions and she asks for one week of freedom in order to seek out the legendary bird of fire, the Phoenix.  Neboketas grants her request, but only on the condition that Club remain his hostage, and his life will be forfeit if Daia does not return before the week is out.
With her lion companion’s help, Daia soon meets up with her old friend Tyrol, now a fully grown Phoenix, and the animal trio.  After hearing of Daia’s plight, Tyrol agrees to help try and change Neboketas’ mind, however the group is captured by a group of Neboketas’ henchmen who intended to make Daia too late to save Club.

Of course, the henchmen are no match in a battle of wits with Tyrol, and they are tricked into letting the group escape.  They arrive in time to save Club from being burned on a cross, but Neboketas captures the Phoenix and intends to use a potion to make Tyrol do his bidding.

Unfortunately for Neboketas, the plan backfires, leaving him a bumbling idiot and Club looking like a prime candidate to become the new Emperor.  And with that, the Phoenix bids the humans adieu.

What you should know

Phoenix [Shōjo Club] (1956-57), is Osamu Tezuka’s second crack at the Phoenix concept.  When it came time to work on a new series as a follow-up to the very popular Princess Knight [Shojo Club] (1953-56) in Shojo Club, Tezuka decided to return to the story begun in Phoenix [Manga Shonen] (1954-55) – one that had been abruptly cut short by the sudden demise of Manga Shonen a year earlier.  However, instead of simply trying to continue the story from where it had been left hanging, Tezuka decided to reboot the series completely.

Largely influenced by American big-screen “spectacle’ movies of the time such as Land of the Pharaohs (1955) and Helen of Troy (1956), Tezuka decided to rework the story into a sweet, romantic epic for young girls.  Although he toyed with the idea of creating a European-style epic, much as he’d done in Princess Knight [Shojo Club] (1953-56), eventually he settled on the Egypt/Greece/Rome setting as the backdrop.

Also interesting to note, Tezuka found it difficult to meet his deadlines with Phoenix [Shojo Club] (1956-57).  As he says in the afterword to the Osamu Tezuka Complete Manga Works edition (MT-200), “The most difficult thing for me was, of course, drawing the Trojan War scenes” (1980, p. 190).  This had a lot to do with the extensive crowd scenes – to the point where Tezuka needed to cloister himself in an inn on the island of Kyushu where he worked feverishly, day and night.  However, even with that, Tezuka felt the need to bring in some help, such as local artists Kenichiro Takai and Leiji Matsumoto, who were both still only high school students at the time.  Although Tezuka was impressed at how deftly the young Matsumoto was able to draw the battle scenes, Tezuka’s editors rejected much of the work because they felt he had inserted too many gags for the young girls who were the primary readers of Shojo Club.

Despite the Phoenix [Shojo Club] (1956-57) story coming to a close, the ideas of resurrection, eternal life and how people could be caught up in a struggle over the blood of the Phoenix in order to gain them, continued to intrigue Tezuka.  Since the original chapter ‘Dawn’ had never been completed (due to the suspension of Manga Shonen and the totally new and unrelated plot that appeared in Shojo Club), in 1967 Tezuka returned to the series for a third time, with another brand new version of the original story – one geared towards a more mature audience.

Where you can get it

Phoenix [Shojo Club] (1956-57) was included in the 12-volume collection of Phoenix manga published by Viz Media between 2003-2007.  All three chapters of Phoenix [Shojo Club] (1956-57) appear in Volume 12, published under the title Phoenix: Early Works.