Hopefully, when you saw this one, you instantly thought of Manaphy.

No?.. Flip it? Extend the two antennae? Flatten out the end of the longer part? Add two big eyes? Work yet? If you turn that blue, you see Manaphy perfectly. Sure, sounds like a stretch, but take a good look at it.

This is clearly the basis for Manaphy though– and it’s very popular in folklore, let me introduce the Sea Butterfly to you. It’s a stunning creature, and it’s actually a sea slug that can swim. That’s a rather interesting thought– especially the next time you see a slug.

This particular species is named Clione Limacina– I point it out mainly due to it being the main Japanese sea butterfly which makes it pretty obvious that they’d choose it.

These guys are called sea butterflies because they flap their little wings to swim through the seas, though they also do look a good deal like a giant, transparent butterfly.

Creepily enough, they’re completely transparent, and you can see every organ in their body.

The more I look at Manaphy though, it kinda looks like it could be a backwards sea butterfly, where the head is actually the other side of the sea butterfly. Kinda creepy, and I can’t stop seeing that.

Here’s another species of sea butterfly– you can tell by that mouth. It’s not Manaphy, but there’s something I’d like to point out.

See the colors? It’s blue, red, and orange/tan. Sounds like someone we know.

Cute. Yep, that’s the end of the biological explanations.

I’d love to sleep, but come on, nothing should ever be that short, right?

Let’s first focus on it’s body. It has a pair of long wing-like fins on its torso, two small stubby legs, a large head, and two extremely long antennae.  There is a red crystalline object on its chest, and it has yellow spots above the eyes that link into the eyes.  The eyes have an outlining of this yellow as well as a yellow dot below the red crystal-like structure.

Supposedly, 80% of Manaphy is water. That makes sense– the body seems to be a blue-transparent color that is highly malleable. It’s likely you could stretch Manaphy around quite a lot, with all this water content.

The red structure on its chest may very well be part of its heart, or even its brain. It’d make sense if this ‘gem’ was involved in the special bonding powers this Pokémon is said to have.

The eyes have two yellow spots above each– possibly as sensory organs, or just as eye-spots to confuse predators about the direction it’s looking. I’d say they might just be a specialized sensory organ though.

Its two fins are long, and seem to make it a fantastic swimmer. However, it is very light, and it seems that this could be one of the best swimmers in Pokémon.

The two extremely long antennae may very well be simply for detecting vibrations in the water, though they might be able to signal strength to a mate. They could also help float Manaphy and keep it balanced using oxygen stored in them, but nobody can tell this from the Pokédex.

One would assume, due to the special bonding powers it has, that it wouldn’t have to worry about predators. Many predators most likely do not engage such a peaceful creature, and it probably has little to worry about.

It seems this little guy doesn’t use its legs much though, and they seem very stubby and weak. Naturally, it would need to spend most of its time in the water due to its body make up, but much like an amphibian, it could probably wander outside the water for some time.