The ojou-sama! A classic character type in manga and anime, a well-bred person (or just someone with pretensions to superiority). It could be an evil person, like Miss Momoka on the right, from The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service vol. 12. It could be a good person, like Tomoyo in the center, from Cardcaptor Sakura. Or it could be a good person who occasionally strangles ninja spies, like Queen Kendappa on the left, from RG Veda Book One. 

Often regarded as CLAMP’s professional debut, RG Veda is pronounced not “R-G,” but just like the Rig Veda that inspired it, the ancient Iegend cycle of India. Dark Horse is collecting the entire epic, originally published as ten volumes, in three omnibus books, on oversize high-quality paper similar to our CLAMP books Cardcaptor Sakura, Tokyo Babylon, and Clover. 

It’s to celebrate the release of CLAMP’s RG Veda Book One that we are inviting you to send in an image or clip of your best ojou-sama laugh. The laugh goes “ohhhh-ho-ho-ho-ho!” but it’s not like the deep, jolly chuckle of Santa. It might be bombastic, but still tittering, up in pitch, above the ordinary, high and mighty like a bird showing its plumage. Thus the hand raised to the mouth is part of the style—it’s supposed to suggest you have manners (like covering your mouth when you yawn), but, because you also have attitude, you’re not really covering it. As you see, you could do the Dr. Evil-style curl of Miss Momoka, the polite my-my of Tomoyo, or the indulgent wave of Queen Kendappa. 

To enter the contest just follow Dark Horse Comics on Instagram, upload your picture or video of your best ojou-sama laugh, tag @Darkhorsecomics and use #DHRGVeda! One random winner will be chosen. Contest ends at midnight, September 16th.

Our favorite ojou-sama laugh will win the items above: a copy of CLAMP’s RG Veda Book One, plus five postcards from CLAMP’s Chobits. These postcards were only available with the Japanese editions of the book, so they’re a bit hard to find here, but we’ve saved some for you! Are you amused by this little contest of ours? Then show us, in the best ojou-sama style—“it is to laugh!” 

—Carl Horn

Manga Editor