The humans able to escape underground now live underneath a dome in Tokyo, Japan, while those unable to become creatures resembling brains with eyes and a spine.

The plot of Pure Trance follows Kaori Suzuki, a kind and good-natured nurse at Overeaters Treatment Center 102, run by the drug-addicted and violently abusive director Keiko Yamazaki.

Meanwhile, the deceased women's fetuses are raised in an artificial womb and grow into healthy children— Yuriko, who is very strong and intelligent; shy and dainty Rika; and twins Miki and Yuki, who possess magical powers.

After several years of living on the surface, Kaori's health deteriorates as she cannot stomach real food, only Pure Trance, whereas the children thrive and grow into adults.

While the children are out tripping on hallucinogenic mushrooms one day, Kimiko and the nurses encounter Seiko, who unwittingly leads them to Kaori, whom they capture and take back to the director.

The few remaining human nurses utilize this information to create a cheap and effective cure for overeating, causing the center to be shut down and the director to be arrested.

[2] Mizuno explained: "They asked me to write a manga to appear with a series of CD compilations called Pure Trance that were introducing techno music to Japan.

[1] Written and illustrated by Junko Mizuno, Pure Trance appeared as a serial in the CD booklets of Avex Trax's eponymous techno-compilation series,[1][3] from May 8, 1996, to January 14, 1998.

[8] Jason Thompson, in Manga: The Complete Guide (2007), gave Pure Trance 3.5 of 4 stars, praising it as a combination of Russ Meyer's work and a science-fiction film from the 1970s.

[3] In a retrospective review of Mizuno's work, Thompson wrote that the "trippy, grindhouse" narrative contained "weak" places and had a tendency to wander; he compared the plot to an apocalyptic film from the 1970s.

In his review of the exhibit, Ken Johnson of The New York Times highlighted Pure Trance as an example of "impressive" "draftsmanship, design and imagination" in a manga.

[10] Writing for About.com, Evan Minto wrote that Pure Trance was on display as an example of "the evolution of the 'manga-style' that is now so synonymous with the medium", because of "its creation of 'hybrid forms' based on traditional manga style, Lolita fashions, and even pornography.