2015 played host to a number of great tokusatsu shows over the year, but very few of them feel quite as important as Ultraman X did. As Tsuburaya Productions gear the Ultra Series and its titular hero up for their 50th anniversary this year, X stormed screens with a 22-episode (not counting a handful of clip episodes) series that was far more than just a delight for Japanese viewers. With staple anime streaming website Crunchyroll steadily adding Ultra Series instalments to its back-catalogue over the past few years, this year it went one step further by announcing the simulcasting of Ultraman X to the rest of the world at the same time as its Japanese airing – making it the first show of its kind to do this. While Japan’s premier superhero might feel like he’s been lagging behind the likes of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai in recent years, it’s fair to say that X brought the franchise back with a bang.