is a manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 by the Japanese artist Junko Mizuno

Junko Mizuno

is a Japanese manga artist.Mizuno's drawing style, which mixes childish sweetness and cuteness with blood and terror has been termed a Gothic kawaii or kawaii noir style. In addition to her comics, she designs T-shirts, calendars, postcards, and other collectibles...

 published in 1998. Her first full-length manga story, it was created for the Pure Trance techno compilation CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 series. The comic is defined as shōjo

Shojo

The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...

 (for girls), but goes far beyond the conventions of the genre.

Last Gasp

Last Gasp

Last Gasp is a book and underground comix publisher and distributor based in San Francisco, California.- History :Founded in 1970 by Ron Turner to publish the ecologically-themed comics magazine Slow Death Funnies, followed by the all-female anthology It Ain't Me Babe, Last Gasp soon became a major...

 published an English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 translation of Pure Trance in July 2005; the edition was produced by jaPRESS.

Main characters

• Keiko Yamazaki: the Director of the Over Eaters Treatment Center 102. Since her origins and training are a mystery, it is unclear why her words and actions are so violent and irrational. She is addicted to "liquid apple," a substance that is meant for use in the hospital, but when injected into a healthy body causes hallucination
  Hallucination
  A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
  
  s.

• Kaori Suzuki: a nurse at Center 102; one of the few sane people there. Educated properly in a privileged household, Kaori is a reliable nurse with a strong sense of responsibility. She was shocked when she first met the director, because she had never seen such a nasty person before. Kaori's brave nature keeps her determined, even against the director.

• Kimiko: the security guard of Center 102. The real world was too harsh for this girl, who once was the mightiest queen of the Ikebukuro school of martial arts
  Martial arts
  Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
  
  . The invincible self confidence she once had has waned. Kimiko was making her living through occasional extortion or blackmail
  Blackmail
  In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
  
   until she encountered the director, who turned the tables on her. This led to her employment as a security guard at Center 102. She is a fan of the pop idol 'Seiko', and her room is filled with Seiko CDs, posters and many other useless Seiko-themed objects. The nurses hate her, as she is favored by the director.

• Other characters include: the beautiful Rika; the tough but kind Yukiro; twin sisters Yuki and Miki; the silent Yuka; Professor Kajiwara; Kiyomi the nursing robot; the child-loving nurse Aiko; nurses Ruriko, Misako, Sachiko and Masako; as well as artificial nurses Umeko and Takeko.

Plot

Pure Trance takes place in the future, after a World War 3. Humans moved underground because of the toxic surface and live underneath a dome in Tokyo, Japan. A life-sustaining capsule called Pure Trance takes the place of food, and hyperorexia, or overeating, becomes a serious issue. The story focuses on a hospital usually referred to as the Center created to treat overeaters of the Pure Trance pill. The main character, Kaori, along with her fellow nurses, work hard to treat patients and avoid the drug-addicted, abusive director Kieko, while the curiosity about the surface world increases as some people are deciding to escape and explore the surface on their own.

Content

Pure Trance is meant for adults only due to a large amount of nudity, swearing, and perversion. The manga contains some hints at BSDM (due the Director's way of punishing the nurses who work for her) and some drug references, although the drugs named in the book are fictional. The artwork is typical of Mizuno's style—blending blood, violence and sexual perversion with childlike cuteness. The book can be found in some libraries and on many Internet websites.