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While Sato has contributed underscore to the "Assassination Classroom" concept from the start, he has only exacerbated this lack of cohesive thematic identity in his handling of the music. There has always been a somewhat hardcore, retro rock/electronica personality to the music in this series, and Sato carries over this general style to portions of his scores for the two movies, Assassination Classroom in 2015 and Assassination Classroom: Graduation in 2016. The composer unleashes his most rowdy rock personality at appropriate times in these two otherwise orchestral hybrid scores, emulating the songs of the television series in style sufficiently to satisfy the concept. But what is truly striking is how Sato himself has helped the music evolve over the course of its two-year run, remaining as schizophrenic as always but far more heavily emphasizing the symphonic and tender elements in Assassination Classroom: Graduation. Sato collectors realize that his scores often fly liberally through genres within the same work, and Assassination Classroom was about as disjointed a listening experience as one can get from him. But Assassination Classroom: Graduation offers a far better balance of the necessary rock interludes and traditional orchestral underscore, making this score a true sibling of his entertaining music for 2008's skiing drama The Silver Season. As before, the composer uses standard rock band elements and electronic embellishment with ease, but it's his combination of piano and orchestral players that truly shines. Sato has a tendency to convey a far more massive sound than his smaller ensembles would suggest, primarily through smart counterpoint lines and an excess of reverb. The number of actual brass and woodwind players joining the string ensemble here is minimal, but each section is mixed to maximize the instrument's impact. Guiding the effort, of course, is a solo piano, which offers three or four extremely poignant cues of elegance involving the main theme of the score. Choir is applied sparingly but to great effect for the supernatural element. Sato remains unafraid to bang on chimes, timpani, and blocks as well for important moments, supplying occasional ruckus straight from Space Battleship Yamato. A handful of ambient cues present cool electric guitar textures that exude a neo-Western feel all the while Sato explodes with David Newman-like passages for marching band comedy involving the main theme as well.

There is no substantial melodic carryover from Assassination Classroom in this sequel, but that didn't stop Sato from conjuring a surprisingly tight thematic narrative within this entry alone. The primary identity experiences a wide range of emotions in Assassination Classroom: Graduation, summarized in its marching band form in "Assassination Classroom: Graduation" (track 3 on the album for those of you with a different translation) and reprised with that fun zeal at the ends of "Our Conclusion" (track 11) and "Last Lesson" (track 14). In the latter cue and "Teaching from the Heart" (track 17), Sato develops the theme's secondary phases of wholesome exuberance. The trilling flutes, constant cymbal hits, wild xylophone and other contributing players to these performances may drive a person nuts, but the brass intro to the theme is hip, to say the least. The flip side of this theme is the soft, often piano-led alternative, expressed first in the lengthy "Birthday Gift" (track 8) with a level of personal sincerity that could drop this cue into any vintage Rachel Portman score without much detriment or notice. Full ensemble drama carries this theme in the following "Assassin and Target" (track 9), a highlight of the score building to a lovely brass rendition of the theme at 2:25 over rhythmic violin lines that concludes with Sato's typical flair for awesome horn counterpoint. This is sappy Sato melodrama at truly its finest. The light piano renditions return in "Our Conclusion" (track 11), where the string counterpoint lines from The Silver Season make a direct cameo. The best moment of Assassination Classroom: Graduation, and a notable highlight in Sato's entire career, is "Goodbye/Killing Me" (track 16), the bizarre death scene at the end of the film that transitions from the most solo piano performances of the theme (over wishy-washy strings) to the moment of grand ascendance at 2:45 that allows the strings to sweep the theme away over ultra-noble brass counterpoint and extremely elegant piano figures. This performance segues directly into the darker military element, carried here by smooth fantasy choir as the panic of the Japanese government and military is superseded by the emotions of the distraught teenagers over Koro-Sensei's death. Sato scores this pair of scenes brilliantly, taking an otherwise totally ridiculous set of events and supplying monumental emotional gravity to them. This cue is appropriately offered at the forefront of the mix on screen, and no decent Sato collection can exist without it.

For some listeners, the sentimental piano and symphonic cues in Assassination Classroom: Graduation, amounting to about 20 minutes of running time, will carry the work. The television series really offered nothing to come close to this sustained level of personal connection, though Mihara and Homma's "Moonlight" song from the second season might come close. Fortunately, the suspense and action cues in Assassination Classroom: Graduation are engaging as well, starting with Koro-sensei's "Grim Reaper" (track 1) theme that applies chanting choir, pounding rhythms, and slight exoticism to his backstory. That choral mysticism returns in the end of the dramatic "Kaede's Secret" (track 5) in a simplistic but satisfying crescendo of weighty suspense. In "A Perfect Killer" (track 7), this tone continues into Sato's secondary theme of dread, emulating vintage Hans Zimmer morbid strings akin to The Peacemaker. This idea is reprised in "Vengeance" (track 15). The full orchestral action cues are infrequent but of interest, "Superbiological Laser Equipment" (track 12) reminiscent of old school Gojira music and "Last Lesson" resurrecting the full-fledged Space Battleship Yamato battle mode. The more singular, electronically aided cues of coolness are a hit and miss affair, the wildest rock interludes in "Main Title" (track 2) and "Enemy" (track 6) insufferable to some ears but most in line with the television show's music. On the other hand, "Red Eye" (track 4) and "To the Super Bio Barrier" (track 13) present rhythmic work for electric guitar over strings and brass that is quite attractive. A lesser version of this idea in "Class 3-E Confrontation" (track 10) is more ambient but just as accessible. Overall, you have to accept the faults of Assassination Classroom: Graduation as being necessary evils for this topic. The story is a frenetic, senseless barrage of nonsense mixed with moments of really heartfelt character development. These scores allow Sato to traverse the entire range of his capabilities because of that wild nature, but this sequel work excels in that each of its disparate pieces is much better executed than what we heard in the prior entry. Sato had a fantastic and prolific 2016, spreading out his impressive work evenly between television and feature projects, and Assassination Classroom: Graduation stands as the pinnacle of his achievements for the year. It's a supernatural-tilting alternative to his strong The Silver Season, and the score-only CD album from Japan's Columbia music division is a definite recommendation for any listener seeking to add several magnificent cues of melodic elegance to an existing Sato collection.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Total Time: 56:01