Please join us for an online talk by Dr. Jiajun Liang, who will be discussing the Studio Ghibli film Grave of the Fireflies.
Widely regarded as a masterpiece of Japanese animation, Grave of the Fireflies is a tragic portrayal of civilian suffering in the aftermath of Japan’s defeat in World War II and is often considered one of the most devastating animated films ever made.
In this talk, Jiajun Liang revisits the film not simply as a war tragedy but as a critique of the linear narrative that has largely dominated Japan’s postwar historiography. Through close analysis of the film’s distinctive use of color and framing, Liang shows how director Takahata Isao produces a “time out of joint,” in which past, present, and future are brought into uneasy coexistence. Drawing on the idea of hauntology, he suggests that the film’s ghostly children persist as specters excluded from Japan’s postwar economic miracle.
By situating Grave of the Fireflies within the late 1980s—a moment marked by both the impending transition from Shōwa to Heisei and the height of Japan’s bubble economy—this talk explores how animation can resist historical closure and compel audiences to confront unresolved questions of memory, responsibility, and loss.
This talk is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Japan Foundation Toronto.
Date & Time:
Thursday, February 5, 2026 | 4:30pm – 6:00pm PT
Location:
Online via Zoom
Speaker
Jiajun Liang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Arts, Media, and Writing Studies at the University of California, Merced. His research focuses on postwar Japanese literature, film, and media, with a particular interest in cultures of repatriation following the collapse of the Japanese Empire. His work appears in journals including The Journal of Japanese Studies, Japan Forum, Language & Communication, and Mechademia: Second Arc.
