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Balala the Fairies Rip-off?

People usually claim that Balala the Fairies is a rip-off of Precure, but is there a rip-off of Balala the Fairies?

Short answer: Not really? But read on for what prompted this whole rabbit hole.

I can barely find anything about the topic so much of it is my own speculation.

Balala the Fairies has two magazine series. The first is published by Children's Fun Publishing, and that is the magazine that I have made several posts on. Between the comics, illustrated stories, gag strips and serialized stories, there seems to be much more ancillary material here after all.

However, there is another Balala the Fairies Magazine. This one is published by Phoenix Media.

Images from Zazhipu, a chinese magazine subscription site, the only good quality images I can find.

There seems to be less information online about this this magazine series than the Children's Fun Magazine. It seemed to began in 2015 as a Balala the Fairies: The Mystery Note magazine before becoming a Finding Melody magazine, ending in 2018.

I was less interested in this Magazine. The serialized story was taken from the Mystery Note novelization, and the only comics were photo-comics from the Finding Melody (In the two Mystery Note editions I managed to get my hands on, these were episode recaps with photos).

However, there is something funny with how the Magazine ended.

See, it appears to end in the middle of the 2018 year.

Or rather, Phoenix Media seems to have lost the license for Balala the Fairies, halfway through the year. But since they've sold subscriptions for the whole year, they seemed to have quickly re-themed the magazine with a similar name and concept. Below are the June (left) and July/August (right) issues of the same magazine, according to Zazhipu.

It transitioned from Balala Xiaomoxian (巴啦啦小魔仙) to Mei Shaonü Xiaomoxian (美少女小魔仙). Just look at the pink curly logo with yellow subtitle.

Well, the stories weren't Balala the Fairies themed to begin with, the puzzles was probably a simple fix of keeping it unthemed. What of the serialized story? Instead of excerpt from the Balala the Fairies: The Mystery Note novelization, it was excerpt from a different book series called Xiaomonü de Xingzuo Zhanzheng 小魔女的星座战争 (translates as Little Witches' Zodiac War)

You'd think: Oh! So now they're theming the magazine after this other book series!

Except not really, this other book series has its own art style:

So like... Who are these other characters on the magazine covers?:

Who knows? I'd thought they were forced to create original stories after losing the license for Balala the Fairies, but nope. They simply repurposed a book they already published some four years ago. These characters just seem to be space-filling mascots where the Balala the Fairies characters would have gone.

So what happened to this Magazine?

It's still running.

It dropped the subtitle at some point, and changed up art styles every so often.

(Top row: 2019 June, 2020 January/February, 2021 May) (Bottom row: 2023 March, 2024 June, 2025 March)

Sorry for the nothing burger, but I did a double take when I first came across this magazine and saw the logo the first time.

[julius-o-gram]

Balala the Fairies Magazine (2014 July Issue) Cover

I managed to obtain a full 2014-2015 run of the Balala the Fairies magazine. I don't fathom ever owning the full run, but I have almost the entirety of the 2014-2016 run which I never thought possible, seeing how the magazine was already out of print for years before I tried acquiring them.

There are some illustrated stories and comics I'm tempted to put out translations for.

This is the full cover. It appears that almost every issue has a wrap-around cover except for the very first issue.

[julius-o-gram]

Balala the Fairies Magazine (2016 March Issue) Q Version Alliance Segment -- English Translation

Balala the Fairies Magazine (2016 March Issue) Q Version Alliance Segment

This segment was from the Balala the Fairies magazine. Unlike the illustrated story or the comic adaptation of series, this segment wasn't collected into a book.

Translation notes for the first comic:

The actual term used is “土豪” which means “Tycoon”. The first half of that term - the word “土” means “Soil” or “Earth”. So [1] Noah asks Shirley if she knows what “Tycoon” means, to which [2] Shirley replies “Someone who has money”. [3] Noah follows this up, saying Shirley is “half a tycoon”, [4] because she already achieved being “Soil”.