Welcome to Amazon Academy! A lovely school founded and promoted by Japan's first female Prime Minister in the year 2020, the academy hopes to promote better morals and a well-rounded education among the new and growing generation of women in Japan! Teaching everything from physical education to a proper tea ceremony, the school has everything a young woman could want!
A seinen web manga by Court Betten that ran in Web Comic Beat's from May 2011 to September 2012, Tokyo Girls Destruction tells the story of a girl named Kumi Amasu, who is informed that her older sister, Towa, died while attending Amazon Academy. Unable to learn anything more, and with the police no help, Kumi has only two clues: Her sister's headband, and the name "Burai Sachiko" in Towa's otherwise-empty cellphone. Kumi enrolls in Amazon Academy to hunt for information about her sister's death, but her first day of class is hardly over when Kumi discovers the darker side of the school: When the last bell rings, the rules go out the window and the students engage in a no-holds-barred battle royale for star badges. Those who have them get to enjoy somewhat-normal school lives, but those without a badge are treated like slaves.
Kumi's only ray of hope is the rogue student Burai Sachiko, the last girl to see Towa before her death, and who was locked in a "penalty cell" for her trouble. With Sachiko's help, Kumi just might be able to survive long enough to finish her investigation, but can she win her trust?
Think Shitsurakuen, without any males, where the fights take place in reality.
This manga includes examples of:
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: To the point where they have their own tower on campus to hide from other students and even their own security force.
- Adults Are Useless: They hold some power over the students, but the student council holds power over them.
- Chew Toy: Mineko Hinata is thrown around a lot (sometimes literally), and is forced to end most of her sentences with "meow."
- False Friend: Played with in case of Hinata who is really this until the final chapters. Sasarano also accuses Kumi of being that after Yagyūin blamed Kumi for poisoning her.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Sasarano easily towers over every other female student seen so far.
- Karma Houdini: Despite betraying Kumi, stealing her badge, and causing a fight between Sasarano and Burai which led to the latter's capture, Hinata simply got away with it. In fact, Kumi still seems to think of her as a friend.
- I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Hinata's reaction after Kumi got under Burai's protection.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Kumi to Burai after she had been brainwashed by the student council. It works.
- I'm Not Here to Make Friends: The general mindset of the students who are aware of the Academy's nature before arriving there.
- Japanese Delinquents: Sasarano and Burai. Both are mainly interested in fighting and violating the school uniform code. The former's "uniform" is even heavily inspired by male Banchou stereotypes.
- Lack of Empathy: All over the place. (With the obvious exception of Kumi) But the special note would go to Yagyūin and Suzaku-sensei.
- Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: What the Student Council wants to turn Burai into.
- Neutral No Longer: While having always been out for herself alone, Hinata finally has a change of heart in chapter 14 and helps Kumi out of sheer friendship.
- Sadist Teacher: Suzaku Hamon, playing this trope painfully straight.
- Serious Business: Badges. They grant each student an easy life. The more you have of them the higher your status in the school's hierarchy.
- Social Services Does Not Exist: Or at least, given the communication ban between the island and the mainland, it doesn't exist at the school.
- Super-Strong Child:
- Burai is somehow able to kick a thick steel door off its hinges while being chained to the ceiling.
- Sasarano Sara seems to be this as well, though she has the size for it to be slightly more believable.
- The Determinator: Kumi, who doesn't give up searching for the truth behind her sister's death and to stay a good person. Also to a degree, any of the badgeless students.
- The Starscream: Hinata is this to Kumi, always thinking about betraying her.
- The Spartan Way: Apparently how the academy works behind the guise of an elite-if-traditional school. It's designed to produce students with exceptional skills in manipulation, survival and/or determination.
- Undying Loyalty:
- Sasarano's two underlings also turn out to be this when they follow her into the student council building and try to get her out, regardless of badges.
- Subverted with most badge carriers who have a following, they will try to betray them at any moment of weakness.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Everyone seems to regard the battle royales as a fact of life at the Academy.
- Verbal Tic: Hinata constantly says "meow" after every sentence, though it was beaten into her by a teacher rather than being a naturally-occurring tic.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Yagyūin seems to have this with her elder sister, who is on the student council and ignores her and her actions.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Kumi. Her sister, Towa, seems to have been this.
- With Friends Like These...:
- Kumi sees Hinata as her friend, despite the later not only constantly thinking about betraying her but also having already done so once without Kumi realising it.
- Subverted in the end, Hinata stays loyal to Kumi when it mattered.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 10. Burai is captured and Kumi loses her badge.
- World of Action Girls: Amazon Academy. It's in the name.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: What Amazon Academy seeks to train its students into; tea ceremony is part of the curriculum. The truth is... darker and more insidious.
