The Phoenix cycle keeps reincarnating its obsessions, and Yamato Chapter inherits the weight of that eternal return. Where Karma showed two sculptors locked in competition across lifetimes, this entry traces how ambition and violence follow the same bloodline through myth, how a legendary warrior's legacy becomes another form of the same curse that drove Akanemaru and Gao to their chisels. Tezuka is not retelling the Yamatotakeru myth for spectacle. He's showing you that the myth never stopped happening, that destiny doesn't explain itself, and that your struggle to prove yourself matters precisely because it's been happening forever.

Sent on his father's orders, Oguna, the youngest prince of Yamato, travels into Kumaso territory to kill its leader, Takeru Kawakami. Before he can carry out his mission, a hunting accident changes everything: a local woman named Kajika wounds him with a stray arrow and, eager to make amends, brings him back to her village to nurse him. The two quickly fall in love, until Oguna learns that Kajika is Takeru's younger sister. Torn between the duty he owes his family and his love for her, the prince turns to the Phoenix, the immortal bird that guards Kumaso, for guidance. Adapted from Tezuka Osamu's take on the Yamato Takeru legend, this OVA is the second chapter of a Phoenix film series, with characters redesigned to look more mature than in the original manga. The result is a tragic drama about two lovers.