10 Essential Superhero Anime That Reinvent The Genre

First becoming iconic as a live-action hero in the vein of the equally-popular super sentai or "Power Rangers" franchise, Ultraman's anime built off the success of one of Japan's most popular monster-fighting superheroes.

Though containing a science team dynamic similar to that of Gatchaman, Ultraman stands out with its main character, Hayata, who transforms into a giant, monster-fighting alien that resembled super sentai more than any of the monsters he fought.

Much of the action seen in this anime and the live action series inspired many creators later, multiple anime incorporating the themes taken from Ultraman's parent series, Ultra-Q, which was Japan's biggest sci-fi feature, featuring some of Japan's earliest and most popular Kaiju, or giant monsters. Though the live-action feature was largely more popular than the anime, the anime maximised the effects and action the series was known for, in ways live action, at the time, could not.

Though often overlooked in favour of other monster-fighting anime, especially Mecha anime, Ultraman - so popular that it spawned a plethora of animated and live-action features, and even its own theme park - is one of Japan's most iconic and popular superheroes, and still very unique in the sea of Western hero titles seen today.