Author: Justin Mullis

Oct242018 by Justin MullisNo Comments

Scholars Talking Toku: Interview with Seth Kim – Pt. 2

Anime, Articles, Blog, Comics, Culture, Interviews, Kaiju, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Toku, toku, tokusatsu, Ultraman

Welcome to the second installment of Scholars Talking Toku's interview with Seth Kim; Assistant Professor in the Program of Cinema and Media Arts and Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University. Kim is the author of several essays on Japanese superheroes and tokusatsu including “Kamen Rider vs. Spider-Man and Bat-Man” which appeared in the book Giant Creatures in Our World: Essays on Kaiju and American Popular Culture (2017, McFarland Press) edited by Camille D.G. Mustachio and Jason Barr. My own essay, “Notes from the Land of Light: Observations on Religious Elements Seen in Ultraman”, was also published in this same collection so we both recommend you pick it up! In the first half of our interview, we discussed Kim's essay “Kamen Rider vs. Spider-Man and Bat-Man” as well as ...

Oct232018 by Justin MullisNo Comments

Scholars Talking Toku: Interview with Seth Kim – Pt. 1

Anime, Articles, Blog, Culture, Interviews, Kaiju, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, toku, tokusatsu

Welcome to a brand new installment of Scholars Talking Toku. My name is Justin Mullis and I’m a scholar working in the academic field of religious studies who also happens to harbor a life long love of Japanese pop-culture. Last year an essay I wrote, “Notes from the Land of Light: Observations on Religious Elements Seen in Ultraman”, was published in the book Giant Creatures in Our World: Essays on Kaiju and American Popular Culture (2017, McFarland Press) edited by Camille D.G. Mustachio and Jason Barr. I recommend you pick it up! One of my fellow contributors to Giant Creatures in Our World is scholar Seth Kim who is an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University. Kim's contribution to our book was a fascinating and provocative essay on the kaijin from the original Kamen Rid...

Dec222017 by Justin MullisNo Comments

Scholars Talking Toku: Interview with Tom Gill – Pt. 2

Animation, Anime, Articles, Blog, Books, Comics, Culture, Dairanger, Interviews, Movies & TV, Power Rangers, Space Sheriff, Super Sentai, Toku, toku, tokusatsu, Ultraman

Welcome to the second installment of a brand new series here on HJU, Scholars Talking Toku. My name is Justin Mullis. I’m a scholar working in the academic field of religious studies with a life long love of Japanese pop-culture. Earlier this year an essay I wrote, “Notes from the Land of Light: Observations on Religious Elements Seen in Ultraman” was published in the book Giant Creatures in Our World: Essays on Kaiju and American Popular Culture (2017, McFarland Press) edited by Camille D.G. Mustachio and Jason Barr. I recommend you pick it up! As a result of my work on this essay I came to realize that there were a number of scholars, like me, who were interested in the topic of Japanese superheroes, through separated both geographically and by areas of expertise. The goal of ...

Dec212017 by Justin MullisNo Comments

Scholars Talking Toku: Interview with Tom Gill – Pt. 1

Anime, Articles, Blog, Books, Culture, Interviews, Kaiju, Kamen Rider, monster, Movies & TV, Super Sentai, Toku, toku, tokusatsu, Ultraman

Welcome to the start of a brand new series here on HJU, Scholars Talking Toku. My name is Justin Mullis. I'm a scholar working in the academic field of religious studies with a life long love of Japanese pop-culture. Earlier this year an essay I wrote, "Notes from the Land of Light: Observations on Religious Elements Seen in Ultraman" was published in the book Giant Creatures in Our World: Essays on Kaiju and American Popular Culture (2017, McFarland Press) edited by Camille D.G. Mustachio and Jason Barr. I recommend you pick it up! When I started working on this essay I believed that I was breaking new ground, that work by academics on Japanese superheroes was probably minuscule to nonexistent. What I soon realized however was that a number of scholars were in fact interested in this...