This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article.

It may not have been the “Nutcracker Suite,” but, judging by the photo spread in Shukan Taishu (3/15), Soft on Demand’s foray into the world of ballet certainly contained elements of “nutcracker” and “sweet.”

Soft on Demand (SOD), of course, is Japan’s most profitable producer of adult movies.

It struck gold with its “All Nude” series of films in the early Noughties, which featured a cast of dozens, nearly all women, who went about such activities as athletics or playing in the nude while entirely buff.

Soon to be released “Zenda Baree (All Nude Ballet)” marks SOD’s return to the All Nude series after a yearlong break and seems likely to get fans screaming, “Me, too!” Or, as this case may call for, “Me, tutu.”

“Zenda Baree” features four lithe young professional ballet dancers with at least 10 year’s dancing experience who perform “Swan Lake.”

Initially, the bare ballerinas are clad in the tutus typical of their profession. Though not quite Arabesque, their performance also includes a kind of Dance of the Seven Veils, which sees them punctuate their Ron de Jambes and Pas de Deuxs by removing an article of clothing until they are butt naked.

“I was really worried about dancing in the nude at first, but once I got up there and saw people watching me, I found it really delightful,” Miki, “Zenda Baree’s” prima donna and a veteran of 15 years ballet experience despite her tender age of 21, tells Shukan Taishu. “I’d like people to take a really close look when I do my jumps and pirouettes.”

Miki remains a member of a professional ballet troupe, so appears in the film with a mask that hides her true identity, as exposure would surely mean an end to her career. But the exposure of her finely tuned body, however, would seem to be a sure giveaway as to who she really is.

Special features available only on the DVD edition of “Zenda Baree” also feature Miki exhibiting a grand Jete, which the less-polite would describe as a spreading of the legs, for legendary adult movie actor cum professional wrestler Chocoball Mukai, who also costars with the prima donna in another scene where he has a dalliance with her derriere.

“Zenda Baree” director Daisuke Kasai is delighted with the results of his film, the second time he has been an auteur for Sod’s “All Nude” series.

“For us, who see ballet as having almost a holy image, watching the girls dancing around in the nude is totally stimulating,” Kasai tells Shukan Taishu. “I’d like all viewers to compare the dancers in the scenes where they’re fully clothed and when they’re naked.”

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(The Mainichi Waiwai column ran online from April 19, 2001 – June 21, 2008. It was a much loved form of entertainment amongst foreigner in and outside of Japan. To any reader it was obviously not serious news, but it was a set of articles that portrayed quite well how the Japanese tabloids actually write about their own country. In 2008, a small number of Japanese people bought it to the attention of rival news groups that Mainichi was running an anti-Japan column on its website. With the bad publicity, Mainichi was forced to shut the page down, and take punitive measures against the journalists that were working on it, claiming that it was receiving opinions that were critical of the column, such as “its contents are too vulgar” and “the stories could cause Japanese people to be misunderstood abroad”. A perfect example of how Japanese consider what they write in their own script to be an acceptable secret code, that the rest of the world cant understand. When that same tabloid rubbish gets inconveniently translated to English to make light of some aspects of the Japanese people, it gets canned. Stippy.com finds this unacceptable, and will reproduce as much of the Waiwai content as possible in order to bring it once again to our computer screens for a good laugh. Of course we claim no credit for this content, and attribute it to it’s writers who were former Mainichi employees. Waiwai in its true and glorious form has been discontinued, but it’s legacy will live on at stippy.com for all to enjoy.)