Phantamanta

"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

Phantamanta, originally known as the Manta , is a boss in Super Mario Sunshine, who appears in the first episode of Sirena Beach. It is the cause of the Hotel Delfino's disappearance. It is a pale pink silhouette of a manta ray. When Mario sprays it with water from F.L.U.D.D., 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.

Wherever the Manta moves, it leaves a trail of teal and yellow electric goop, which Mario can spray with F.L.U.D.D. If there is even a tiny drop of it left, Mario can get zapped when he touches it. Areas where the Manta cannot reach Mario are if he is under one of the two huts or under a coconut tree. 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 cannot produce goop with a shock. Upon contact with F.L.U.D.D.'s water, Manta first divides into two. Each of those Mantas can divide into two more. Each of those divide into four Mantas. And, each of those can further divide into four more Mantas, making a total of 64 Mantas to defeat. When all of the Mantas have fully divided, they will turn purple, become irate, and start swarming towards Mario; until this point, the smallest Mantas do not pursue him, but all the larger sizes will. Once the last one is vanquished, Hotel Delfino will be restored, revealing a Shine Sprite for Mario to collect.

Trivia

 * The Manta's music is a slightly eerie remix of the boss music that plays when fighting the Plungelos and the Gatekeepers, and Gooper Blooper (in Noki Bay's second episode).
 * It may have been inspired from the ending of the horror novel : "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 Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Golf: Advance Tour, one of the default names on the scoreboards is Phantamanta, which is a pun on "phantom" and "manta".