Pick an OST that you personally loved and analyse it. Make sure to include how it is used in the anime it belongs to.

The year is 2014 and the medium of anime is desperately in need of saving.  Thank god the folks at studio Trigger, and in particular a composer by the name of Hiroyuki Sawano are up to the herculean task.  Trigger’s nudist propaganda disguised as an epic has received acclaim for its bombastic presentation and needed an OST to match.  Sawano responded by creating a soundtrack that used incredibly diverse instrumentation to in**D**uce hype at every turn. There are several songs on the OST that act as mood pieces.  While these songs all sound distinctly like Kill la Kill, and are instrumented cleverly, they play on comm**O**n musical beats to concisely set the tone of a scene.  These aren’t the standouts of the OST, but the epically ominous tunes used in episode 17, as well as “AdlaLib” for its strikingly sad and shockingly simple piano are the standouts of this group.  What the sou**N**dtrack is known for, and where it succeeds for me, is in its leitmotifs.  The heavy use of leitmo**T**ifs throughout works out incredibly well, as many soundtracks for stories on similarly grand scales, such as epics and space operas, make use of leitmotif heavy soundtracks.  Kill la Kill in my mind takes the simple leitmotif a step further, using it to reveal who is actually orchestrating the events occurring behind the scenes, as well as remixing the leitmotifs once the “normal” of the show is established.  Where norma**L**ly an entire song is dedicated to a transformation scene, the song will instead stretch over the length of the battle as the transf**O**rmation is just a given at that point.  This does wonders to normalize the ridiculousness of the show, and that’s one of the main draws of it overall for me.

The actual songs themselves are all phenomenal, and they all do an equally great job of characterizing their subjects.  Even with non-central characters like the elite four.  Gamagoori’s theme is dominated by the strong backbeat of the drum line, and has probably the heaviest pre**S**ence of any of the four themes.  You’d expect someone with this kind of theme to be the brawn of the group, the physical might that supports the power of the group from the front lines, and that is what h**E** is and does throughout.  Nonon’s theme, in addition to absolutel**Y** slapping, is characterized by the heavy emphasis on h**O**rns.  While part of this is because she’s the leader of the marching band, her theme bears far and away the most resemblance to Satsuki’s theme.  The weak horn in the beginning and the flute solo point to her big presence contrasting with her small stature.  Inumuta’s theme is electro, however in contrast to other electronic music in the OST, his theme very rigidly emphasizes each down beat, which fits nicely with his personality that’s all about the data and what you can infer from it, and not going against the numbers.  Finally you get to Sanageyama’s theme, the only one that draws heavy influence from traditional Japanese music.  Given he fashions himself a sam**U**rai, this is fitting, however the music transitions into a mo**R**e electronic beat later, which foreshadows his decision to surrender himself to the technology of his suit.  The electronic beats also are incredibly similar to that of Inamuta’s theme, and the way each of the elite four have parts of another’s theme in their own shows the overlap of the group in a really cool way.

The other themes in the show also do a great job characterizing as well.  The heroic horn drop in Satsuki’s theme belong more in a hero’s theme than one of a facist ruler.  The whole song in general is a**W**ash with traditional horn and string instruments, a signpost that points to Satuski’s desire to work in upholding the system of Honnoji Academy, as well as her desire to work within the system to upend her mother’s nefarious plots.  It’s also incredibly epic, best served with a heel click.  The Nudist Beach theme is clever in that its electronic like many other tracks in the show, but the heavy use of syncopation throughout differentiates it from the other themes of characters that operate within the system of Honnoji and Revocs.  The use of this theme throughout the show to point to acts m**A**de possible by Nudist Beach, such as the casual warthog Ryuoku and Mako use to get to school on time, help tell the story using music not just with exposition.  The actual villains in the show have rather horrifying themes.  Nui’s theme seamlessly blends the airy and cute percussion of a doll sipping tea with the tension building strings that suggest the doll is about to rotate its head 180 degrees and stab you with a knife.  All that tension eventually resolves in an incredibly villainous drop that belies her true murderous nature.  This contrasts with Rag**Y**o’s theme, which due to incredibly subtle allusions to Nazi Germany, is entirely in German.  It speaks of acquiring power regardless of the cost, and it sounds of someone who’s in it because of a calm, deluded desire to rule over people who can’t rule themselves, as opposed to someone who wants violence and misery for its own sake.  I’m running out of characters, so let’s just say Mako’s theme is great precisely because it is so shockingly different than every other song in the OST. Finally, Ryuko’s theme pushes the main moral of the story, and is adopted by anyone performing a heroic stand against the facist fashion of Revocs.  Just wish it had memorable lyrics in the chorus that would tie it all together.