When Generation IV came out, it introduced the highest number of Mythical Pokémon for the time — only to be matched by Generation VII ten years later. With how little information the games generally provide on these event-exclusive creatures, some received a better treatment than others. The two sea guardians were among the others.
Very little is known about Manaphy. One of the aspects the Pokédex puts more emphasis on are its migration patterns — the category of Seafaring Pokémon is self-explanatory. More specifically, it is originally addressed as かいゆうポケモン, from 回遊 [migration (of fish)], but could also be a combination of 海 [sea] and 佑 [protection] in reference of its “guardian” role.
The Pokémon is born from a unique-looking Egg on cold seafloors, from there starting its voyage across the seas until it returns to its birthplace. The lower temperatures the creature lives in are also referenced by its movepool, being one of the three Pokémon able to learn Tail Glow — a nod the bioluminescence developed by fish in deep waters. This, however, seems to be generally incoherent with what we can observe in the games.
Born on a cold seafloor, it will swim great distances to return to its birthplace.
Three different Manaphy Eggs are obtainable in as much titles of the Ranger series, all eventually transferable to the Generation IV games, affirming their canonicity. Both the shores of Summerland in Fiore and Almia’s Nabiki Beach seem unsuitable environments for the hatching of a Pokémon in need of cold waters, the latter even presenting a West Sea Shellos which later iterations will confirm to develop in warmer seas.
This Pokémon’s habitat shapes its physique. According to some theories, life in warm ocean waters causes this variation to develop.
Found in abundance on seashores bordering warm waters. Shellos are unexpectedly friendly and will crawl toward any person they see. Take care not to get coated in mucus!
But even giving the benefit of the doubt to the spin-off series’ scenario writers — the Sea Slug habitat was only revealed after the second game came out, although it would be difficult to think an island based on summer to be surrounded by a cold ocean — this wasn’t true for the Corsola living in the Coral Sea of Oblivia, where another Manaphy Egg is found.
Clusters of Corsola congregate in warm seas where they serve as ideal hiding places for smaller Pokémon. When the water temperature falls, this Pokémon migrates to the southern seas.
Those are, in all likelihood, just oversights on the developers’ part, at best explainable by those mysterious Eggs all washing ashore from very distant seafloors. Legends: Arceus corrected this long series of inconsistencies, as we now can find Manaphy residing in a marine cave located in the East Sea of Hisui. As confirmed by the presence of East Sea Shellos here, those are effectively cold waters.
Its appearance changes depending on the environment. One theory suggests that living in cold seas causes Shellos to take on this form.
Found in abundance on seashores bordering cold waters. When pressed upon, the Pokémon will secrete from its body’s surface a purple fluid that will stain one’s clothes.
Scarlet and Violet also subtly introduced the idea the Pokémon World, as much as like ours, is currently facing global warming — the population of West Sea Shellos is recently increasing, we can infer due to their habitat becoming more present to the detriment of the colder seas more suited for the blue variant. Retroactively speaking, those Manaphy Eggs in the Ranger Union may have been laid as a habit developed in times when the temperatures were lower.
[West Sea] It oozes a purple fluid to deter enemies. Apparently, there are more West Sea Shellos now than there were in the past.
[East Sea] A recently published research paper states that this form of Shellos is gradually decreasing in number.
Behind climate change there are obviously human activities, the social message behind the entries being as evident as it can, but we can see actual evidence of this process looking at a Pokémon’s behaviour: West Sea Shellos are exclusively found in Omega Ruby, while the East Sea form can only be encountered in Alpha Sapphire. How so? The water slug only appears in Hoenn after the post-game, lured by the natural energy brought by the Legendary Pokémon awakening: it is only natural, then, that Groudon would contribute to warm up the region’s sea, resulting in a migration of the West Sea variant; something that doesn’t occur if it’s Kyogre the one rising from its super-ancient chamber.
“The fact of the matter is that after you resolved that kerfuffle with the super-ancient Pokémon, a number of Pokémon never before recorded in the Hoenn region began to appear all over! Those Pokémon are precisely the subject of my many long years of research… They are Pokémon which are thought to have resided in Hoenn thousands of years ago!”
Shifting our focus to Phione doesn’t make things less convoluted on the habitat side. The Pokédex affirms they live in warm seas, only to eventually return home after a life drifting in packs along the current — this is referenced by the English category of Sea Drifter Pokémon, although in original it’s simply かいようポケモン, from 海洋 [ocean], and possibly also 海容 [forgiveness] with the same pronunciation.
It drifts in warm seas. It always returns to where it was born, no matter how far it may have drifted.
When the water warms, they inflate the flotation sac on their heads and drift languidly on the sea in packs.
Of the two locations we can find wild Phione, however, all seem to be tied to colder waters. The three specimens we find in Legends: Arceus inhabit the East Sea as well, but as they accompany Manaphy we can think of these more like a “royal retinue” for the so called “prince”.
Another one is found in Oblivia, more specifically in the depths of the Canal Ruins on Sophian Island. If there’s a cold place in the archipelago, that is near the snowy mountain towering at the isle’s center; and with all the Pokémon typical of deep, dark waters like Huntail, Gorebyss, and Lanturn inhabiting the ruins, this trench doesn’t appear to be the best ecological niche for Phione. A lonely individual drifted too far from home, or just another mistake from the developers?
Be it as it may, we never really saw a Phione in its natural habitat. Which also begs the question: why is it different from its counterpart in the first place? The two Mythical Pokémon are closely connected to one another: pairing the Seafaring Pokémon with a Ditto in a Day Care will result in a Phione Egg to appear, making it evident the Sea Drifter is nothing more than Manaphy’s spawn.
This causes its own series of questions. For instance, if a Manaphy produces Phione as its offspring, where does the Manaphy Egg come from? As the Pokédex suggests, these Pokémon are highly affected by the environment they live in, and the different outcome in reproduction may serve as a basis to their migrations:
Water makes up 80% of its body. This Pokémon is easily affected by its environment.
After they are born in the cold floors of the Sinnoh East Sea, Manaphy “migrate across the oceans”; given Laventon assertion they rarely visit Hisui, those originating in Seaside Hollow likely drift further east or south, abandoning the region until they decide to return home.
Rumored to migrate across the oceans and visit Hisui’s coastal waters only rarely. Although Manaphy resembles Phione, it is also quite different. The relation between the two is unclear.
The reason for this may be to find a more suitable environment to generate Phione. Arrived in warmer waters, they lay one or more Eggs so that a new colony of Sea Drifter Pokémon can see the light; as we saw, they too seem to retain the same instinct to migrate elsewhere and only later return home, but this seems more a combination of genetic heritage and search for food than a reproduction-driven strategy.
A Pokémon that lives in warm seas. It inflates the flotation sac on its head to drift and search for food.
Can be seen floating offshore during seasons when the seas are warm. Its azure body blends in with the ocean waters — logic suggests this is a defense mechanism against natural predators.
Manaphy eventually returns “to its birthplace”, suggesting it is now in need of cold waters. Why would this be, if not because its Egg can result in a new Seafaring Pokémon at the proper conditions? In simple terms, the Mythical Pokémon comes back home at the end of its life, once the Phione have been produced, so that it can give birth to a last child embraced by the chill sea, perpetuating the cycle. This method may seem uselessly contrived at first, but it really isn’t that unusual in the animal kingdom. Different strategies compared to sexual anisogamous reproduction all have its series of pros and cons, and since Manaphy apparently lacks the need of a proper partner apart from the gameplay-required Ditto, its case seems a combination of parthenogenesis and hermaphroditism.
Phione would be seemingly a result of the former, not differently than how queen bees produce offspring through a single gamete — the fact they are not sterile may suggest they eventually get their diploidy either from successive fertilization or more complex molecular mechanisms.
Producing a second Manaphy would, instead, require sexual reproduction — the fact an Egg must be laid exclude the possibility this is a perfectly genetic clone, and the Pokémon must be fertile to produce a new Phione swarm. Contrary to queen bees, however, another Manaphy or a Phione aren’t sexually compatible, narrowing down the process to hermaphroditism: both female and male gametes are produced by the same individual, their combination generating new offspring not much differently than the most common variant with two specimens involved.
Problem remains on how the first Manaphy occurred. While the two guardians may have been simply the result of evolution by natural selection, having their most distant ancestor in Mew, their role and powers seem to be more akin to the divine. The Pokédex mentions multiple times the particular “power” Manaphy is born with, that allows it to communicate with each kind of Pokémon.
It is born with a wondrous power that lets it bond with any kind of Pokémon.
It starts its life with a wondrous power that permits it to bond with any kind of Pokémon.
This is rendered in-game by the peculiar move Heart Swap [ハートスワップ, Heart Swap], which also confirms Phione does not inherit such quirk. According to the attack description, the user employs its “psychic power” to switch the stat changes with the opponent; to exchange the feelings that resides in their respective hearts, to speak out of gameplay mechanics. So, despite not being a Psychic Type, Manaphy has a certain rule over the mind — Legends: Arceus further implies this in adding Confusion and Zen Headbutt to its movepool.
This isn’t a surprise, the Pokédex does describe the Seafaring peculiar power as that of bonding with every Pokémon — it touches their “hearts”, or their “spirits” if we want to go with the usual connotation the franchise gives to the word. More than the work of an ESPer, however, Manaphy’s capabilities seem to be more rooted in magic. The Pokémon is among the Fairy Egg Group other than Water 1, and this has no real purpose in the game other than give the creature an aura of mystery. Even the name マナフィ [manafi] is a clear portmanteau of “mana” — the spiritual lifeforce in Melanesian and Polynesian mythology — and the English “fay”, or “fairy”. And while フィオネ [fione] borrows its ending from the genus of sea slugs Clione, its beta name followed the same scheme, picking again from western folklore: エルフィ [erufi] clearly had a connection with the word “elf”, combined with the fairy aspect.
The more mystique nature of this Mythical Pokémon was further expanded with the short “Pokémon: Pikachu, What’s This Key?” released with the 17th movie, where it was firstly established Manaphy has access to its own dream-like pocket dimension — here we can see at distance many floating islands reminiscent of those in the Dream World, and fluctuating water bubbles where other Water Type Pokémon play freely, evidently drifted in the domain while asleep. The canonicity of this is obviously questionable, but it doesn’t contradict the general narrative, and the short was also referenced in-game with an official Darkrai distribution with OT: “ ふしぎのくに [Wonderland].
A fairy of the sea able to communicate with all beings, and its swarm of elven children is, then, the picture we can extrapolate from this bizarre duo. They are almost fable-like beings which inhabit secret corners of the seas, their influence capable of reaching the hearts of Pokémon all around the globe — maybe as a tie to the idea all life ultimately comes from water. They even act a bit like elves from Middle Earth, if Manaphy’s love for chants revealed in New Snap can be taken at face value.
Manaphy has a wondrous power that lets it bond with any kind of Pokémon. It will sometimes rise up from the ocean floor, lured by the sound of beautiful singing.
As for its exact origin, Manaphy was often addressed with the title of “prince” [王子] — at first in the anime and in spin-offs, then in Legends: Arceus. The so called “Prince of the Sea”, then, needs a king to have been born from. This isn’t necessarily to take literally, Legendary and Mythical Pokémon of this kind often tend to be more incarnations of concepts rather than carnal beings with a precise and clear origin.
But given that Kyogre is described as the primary embodiment of the sea, it would only natural that a secondary incarnation like Manaphy would be considered its “kin”. To draw again a parallel with J. R. R. Tolkien mythos, the Seafaring Pokémon would be a Maiar — one more focused to embody the living creatures of the sea, rather than the waters as a whole — under a more powerful Valar; as Uinen is to Ulmo.