Phantamanta

Not to be confused with Manta.

Phantamanta
Species	Manta
First appearance	Super Mario Sunshine (2002)
Latest appearance	Super Mario 3D All-Stars (2020)

“This giant manta-shaped thing showed up. It was this paper-thin...floating silhouette. It came and covered the hotel grounds in this electric goop.”

—Hotel manager, Super Mario Sunshine

The Manta coming up over the horizon

Phantamanta, originally known as the Manta, is a boss who appears in the first episode of Sirena Beach in Super Mario Sunshine. It is the cause of Hotel Delfino's disappearance. It is a pale salmon-colored silhouette of a manta ray. When Mario sprays it with water from FLUDD or attacks it with Water Barrels, it splits into smaller versions of itself, also referred to as Manta rays. It possesses the uncanny ability to project itself over any surface of varying elevations instantaneously, much like a shadow. Its name is a pun on "phantom" and "manta."

In its episode, The Manta Storm, before the Manta arrives, the electric goop that it leaves behind before Mario arrives is in the shape of the Manta itself. When battled, as the Manta moves, it leaves a trail of electric goop. The Manta cannot reach Mario if he is under one of the two huts or under a coconut tree, which is foreshadowed by a Pianta in one of the huts if Mario speaks to her before the battle. If the Manta is still in its largest form, it can still hurt Mario under the huts or trees. In addition, if Mario stands in the water, the Manta can still reach him, but it cannot produce goop with a shock. Upon contact with FLUDD's water, the Manta first divides into two. Each of those Mantas can divide into three more. Each of those can divide into four more Mantas. Lastly, each of those can further divide into four more Mantas, making a total of 96 Mantas to defeat. When all of the Mantas have fully divided, they turn pink, become irate, and start swarming towards Mario; until this point, the smallest Mantas do not pursue him, but all the larger ones do. Once the last one is vanquished, Hotel Delfino is restored, revealing a Shine Sprite for Mario to collect.

In Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Golf: Advance Tour, one of the default names on the scoreboards is Phantamanta.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	マンタ Manta	Manta
French	Méga Manta	Mega Manta
German	Magischer Manta	Magic Manta
Italian	Fantamanta	Phantamanta
Spanish	Mega Raya	Mega Ray (Raya means Ray)

Trivia

• The Manta's music is a slightly eerie variation of the miniboss music that plays when the player fights the Plungelos, the Gatekeepers, and Gooper Blooper (in Noki Bay's second episode).
• The Manta may have been inspired by the ending of the horror novel The Shining, after the Overlook Hotel is destroyed: "For a moment it assumed the shape of a huge, obscene manta, and then the wind seemed to catch it, to tear it and shred it like old dark paper. It fragmented, was caught in a whirling eddy of smoke, and a moment later it was gone as if it had never been."
• In Splatoon 3, Big Man's boss fight pays homage to Phantamanta, with the ink color even being identical to the goop Phantamanta uses. His boss title, "The Hype Manta Storm," also references The Manta Storm, the name of the mission in which Phantamanta is fought.
• Phantamanta is fought in a very similar way to Marching Milde from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island; both bosses split into smaller and smaller versions of themselves until they are defeated.