Pure Trance is full of brutal violence, depravity, corruption and all-around weirdness, and it’s really, really, really cute.
An amalgam of several sci-fi cliches, Pure Trance is set in a post-apocalyptic future. The third World War left most of the planet inhospitable, so the residents of Japan moved underground. This subterranean world isn’t very good for growing crops or raising animals, so everyone receives their nourishment from Pure Trance pills. (No, they’re not made out of people) The pills, though, have resulted in many women developing serious overeating disorders.
Pure Trance, then, is set in one of the many hospitals dedicated to treating these eating disorders. While the nurses of Centre 102 are caring and dedicated, the same cannot be said of the director, who spends most of her time high on medication, performing surgery with a chainsaw, and demanding her lackeys bring her more contraband beef. When she finally goes too far and kills a few patients, brave and kind Nurse Kaori finally stands up to her. This leads to an escape to the forbidden surface, pursuit by a pop idol-worshipping security guard and two artificial people, sex with brains and eyeballs, supernatural twins, a meek zookeeper, and bizarre pregnancies.
No, Grant Morrison did not ghostwrite the book.
It’s essentially a fusion of a bunch of sci-fi cliches: Bits of Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, Soylent Green, and other post-apocalyptic works figure prominently. There are plenty of mutants, androids, psychic powers, and rules about exploring the forbidden surface world. While this has the potential to make Pure Trance a derivative and dull cliche, it has two main things going for it: First, it is so gloriously over the top that you can’t help but appreciate the madness. And second, it is flat-out the cutest vision of a post-apocalyptic future you will ever see.
Mizuno draws in a hyper-cute, super-perky style that makes for a stark contrast with the often grotesque story. The nurses look like sexed-up Power Puff Girls, the children have a pixie-like quality, and the few male characters look like toadstools. Even the surface mutants are cute, with many of them looking like bunnies, teddies, or other fluffy critters. The extreme ultra-cuteness of it all may cause your brain to blow a fuse when you see the Director with syringes stuck into every inch of her body, someone’s skin dissolving until only the brain is exposed, or a large animal ripping in two as it leans into a hole.
For all the absurdity of the story, Mizuno’s established the world in great detail. There are annotations with details on background items – such as the weird surface vegetation or the Director’s supply of sex toys – that add odd details to the world. You can find out that the artificial police go on dates just like regular girls on their days off, and that the Mayor was frightened by the surface elevator and cried a little. Despite the fact that everything is totally absurd, it still makes a fair amount of sense: The loss of the surface world, and its corresponding relationship with the food supply, mean that the world of Pure Trance isn’t totally unrealistic. And while one has to accept a bit of weird-for-no-apparent-reason – such as psychic twins, a mayor with a stuffed animal fetish, or the Director leaving her pornography inside patients – it’s not like Mizuno expects you to believe that being bitten by a radioactive bug could give you superpowers or anything.
While Mizuno’s art is fantastic, it’s somewhat lacking when it comes to distinguishing different characters. There are a few too many blonde nurses …
Huh. Did I really just say that? How odd.
Anyway. With Mizuno using the same basic design so often, characters can often only be told apart by their hairstyle, and even that can change from time to time. This is compounded by there being just a few too many characters to begin with; aside the director, with her tattoos and ever-present syringes, and Kimiko the scarred security guard, many of the females blend together. There’s also not a whole lot of character development to be found, as the story is driven more by the plot than anything else. A few characters stand out well, like the gloriously insane director and brave nurse Kaori. The mayor’s a favourite, too, if only because he has a stuffed animal fetish and is scared of really fast elevators.
Pure Trance is probably one of the more unique books you’re going to find on the shelves this year. It doesn’t always make a whole lot of sense, and at times it’s carried solely by the demented imagination of its creator. But that imagination goes a long way, as Mizuno fills the book with an entertaining mixture of comedy and sci-fi. And it’s all cuter than the cutest bunny rabbit eaten by the most sadistic hospital administrator you’ve ever seen.