The light novel, manga, and anime series High School DxD features a diverse cast of characters. The visuals of the characters were designed by Miyama-Zero and their stories were created by Ichiei Ishibumi. The stories follow the adventures of Issei Hyodo, a perverted high school guy who is killed by his first date, but reborn as a devil to serve Rias Gremory, a crimson-haired school beauty who heads the . Issei, Rias, and the club members interact with various groups and organizations, some of which are run by devils who compete against them in sanctioned combat matches called Rating Games, where the characters have been assigned positions akin to chess pieces.
Author Ichiei Ishibumi had previously worked on a horror genre series two years before publishing the first light novel for High School DxD. In the volume 1 afterword, he mentions that he changed his writing style, and wanted to develop one in the school-life, love-comedy, battle, and fantasy genre. His main character Issei was made into a lecherous guy at the request of his editor. For the first volume, he made Rias a second lead character and heroine, and Asia to be the second heroine. Some of his characters are loosely referenced from the Bible, non-fiction books, and mythology. He created a world where the war between the three main factions (angels, devils, and fallen angels) is over, and where many famous angels and devils have already ceased to exist. He also added characters and legendary beasts from a variety of places from Norse mythology to Japanese yokai. Ishibumi named the Four Great Devils after characters from the Gundam media franchise. For example, Sirzechs Lucifer is a combination of Char Aznable and Zechs Merquise, and Millicas is named after Merquise and Aznable's real names Milliardo and Casval.[1]
In Volume 5 of the light novels, Ishibumi writes that he likes to pair the main characters: Rias and Akeno as the big sister duo, Asia and Xenovia are the church-related duo who become friends, Gasper and Koneko are the young first-years, and Issei and Yuto are the guys.
When Rias' English voice actress Jamie Marchi was writing the dub script, she noted it was a breast-centric show, even noting that they have sound effects for when they move. She saw the main heroine Rias was calm and stern and a character that she isn't used to playing. She also liked giving the side characters more personality.[2] Ishibumi also agrees with the appeal of the characters' oppai (breasts) especially in later volumes of the light novels, and had planned to make the heroines more erotic, especially in the side story volumes that focus on comedy.
Most of the protagonists serve as members of Kuoh Academy's Occult Research Club, a team of ten devils, an angel and a dragon which is a front for Rias Gremory's team of devils. They are involved in various devil activities from making contracts with humans to participating in Rating Games and other conflicts that involve the school. At the end of volume 4 of the light novels (and the second anime series), fallen angel leader Azazel becomes the club's adviser, and has the girls live at Issei Hyodo's home.
[3] is the viewpoint character and main protagonist of High School DxD. Introduced as a second-year high school student at Kuoh Academy, he has a reputation for being lecherous. Raynare, posing as Yuma Amano, goes out on a date with him. However, Issei realizes too late that the date was a trap set up by Raynare, and is fatally stabbed in the stomach. After he is revived by Rias Gremory, he becomes a devil and her servant, where he joins the school's Occult Research Club.[4] Ishibumi describes him as "a guy who loves girls and is really stupid".
Issei demonstrates great potential as his resurrection required Rias to consume all eight pawns of her allotted team. Learning that he can assemble his own team in the future, he aspires to become a Harem King. He tries to protect and help his friends, some of whom fall in love with him, but while he enjoys their lustful affections, he is also scared of them and doesn't want to get serious with them because of the trauma suffered from Raynare. As he progresses, he becomes a middle-rank devil, and acquires a familiar named Skithblathnir. He later reaches the upper-ranks, with Asia, Xenovia, Ravel and Rossweisse as part of his group.
Issei's main item in combat is the, a Sacred Gear which initially takes the form of a gauntlet on his left arm. Rias reveals that the Gear is one of the Thirteen Longinus items; as it houses Ddraig, the Red Dragon Emperor. His abilities with the Gear include: Boost enables him to double his powers every ten seconds; lets him amplify his ally's ability; and fires a beam against his enemies. He can be promoted to use additional abilities associated with higher ranked pieces, either by reaching an opponent's headquarters during a Rating Game, or with the permission of the King. Over the course of the series, he becomes more powerful and acquires abilities and powers such as Juggernaut Drive, Balance Breaker Scale Mail, (which allows him to be promoted without the restrictions); Dividing Wyvern Fairy and Longinus Smasher. He also has not-so-serious techniques that he uses against his female opponents including: obliterates a girl's clothes after previously touching her; and listens to her inner thoughts as if her breasts are talking.
See main article: Rias Gremory.
While being raised as a nun of the Catholic Church,, a blonde-haired girl, develops her abilities to heal people. However, Diodora Astaroth injures himself and has Asia heal him. As a result, Asia is excommunicated from the church. When she moves to Japan, she befriends Issei, but is abducted by Raynare who removes and steals her healing rings and kills her. After a lengthy battle, Rias revives her to become a devil and serve as her bishop. She moves into the Hyodo residence and transfers to their school. Despite her devil identity, Asia tries to continue her faith, although whenever she prays or reads the Bible, she initially gets a severe headache.[5] She possesses a set of Sacred Gear rings called .
Asia is strongly attracted to Issei as her first friend; she is jealous whenever he acts perverted towards the other girls, asking that he redirect his actions towards her. This makes Issei conflicted between wanting to protect her innocence and indulging in her affections. Her familiar is a baby Sprite Dragon named She later becomes a Dragon User, and after Rias and Akeno graduate, she becomes the club's new president.
is the black-haired vice-president of the Occult Research Club; she wears her hair in a long ponytail. Issei describes her as an ideal Japanese woman with a pretty face that is always smiling, and along with Rias, make up the two great big sisters that are idolized at the school. She exhibits a gentle personality, but during combat, becomes highly sadistic.. As Rias's queen, she possesses a variety of abilities, preferring elemental attacks such as lightning strikes. She transforms her costume to that of a shrine priestess and assumes the nickname Priestess of Thunder.
Later on, she helps draw off energy from Issei's Boosted Gear by sucking on his finger, and flirts more openly with him.[6] She is later revealed to be the daughter of the fallen angel leader Baraqiel and a human shrine maiden. After showing Issei her mixed wings, she is concerned he will hate her, but he accepts her, after which she acts more affectionately towards him, saying that she does not mind being third (after Rias and Asia). Eventually, Issei convinces her to add her fallen angel aspects to her abilities, creating the Holy Lightning attack. She gets in a conflict with her father in volume 7 that causes her to act unstable and fragile, but Issei helps her reconcile with him.
Over the course of the series, Akeno continues to progress her abilities. She acquires, which increases her Holy Lightning abilities, and passes the promotion exam for the middle-class devil rank. In a later volume, she creates Raikouryuu, an Eastern dragon made of Holy Lightning.
A white-haired two-tailed humanoid nekomata raised by a devil, has to witness her master being killed in self-defense at the hands of Kuroka, who becomes a stray devil. Sentenced to death for her crimes, Shirone is rescued by Sirzechs Lucifer and Rias takes her in, giving her the name . Koneko eventually becomes a first-year student at Kuoh Academy. Issei describes Koneko as petite with a loli-face, a mascot character admired by both boys and girls. Her position in Rias's group is the rook, where she withstands crushing forces and can throw heavy objects with little effort. Although she is quiet and cool-headed, rarely showing emotion, she is often irritated with Issei's perverted tactics. Her familiar is a small white cat named . Ishibumi discussed Koneko's identity with his editor, but it was not fleshed out for over a year until Volume 5. Eventually, Koneko started to develop feelings for Issei after he helped her overcome her fears of using Senjutsu and told her that he was not afraid of her, and he would stop her if she ever went out of control, giving Koneko the courage to accept her true self.
is a blond-haired second-year student and the school's top prince. He serves as the knight on Rias's team. His Sacred Gear, lets him generate swords with various properties for their blades, such as Holy Eraser (a blade that devours light) or Flame Delete (an ice blade that negates fire attacks). He can also generate a large number of blades from the ground to pierce enemies or give him more options in combat. Ishibumi created Yuto to add appeal to the female readers of his series, and has him develop as the ace of the team as well as a strong backing character for Issei.
Yuto is the sole child survivor of the Holy Sword Project, which tries to develop children that can wield the Holy Swords that can destroy devils. He nearly dies from escaping the destruction of the children, but is saved by Rias, and becomes her servant. Hoping to avenge the death of his comrades, he seeks to destroy the Holy Sword Excalibur's remnants. During his battle against Kokabiel and Freed Sellzen, he receives a crystal that contains the souls of his comrades from the project's leader Valper Galilei, and uses it to make his ultimate Balance Breaker sword form called, which has both Holy and Demonic attributes.
Ishibumi purposely gave light novel volume 3 a boy's love-themed title as that story focused mainly on Yuto. Following the battle, he acts more friendly towards Issei, although some of his statements make Issei uncomfortable. Yuto's familiar is a small bird, but Issei refuses to express further interest in the topic.
In volume 12, Yuto defeats Siegfried after the latter's demonic sword Gram accepts him as his new master. Other demonic swords choose Yuto, and he is also officially promoted to the middle-class devil rank. However, in volume 17, he has difficulty controlling Gram.. Following Akeno's graduation, he becomes Vice-President of the Occult Research Club.
Raised by a swordswoman-turned-angel named Griselda Quarta, becomes an exorcist and member of the Catholic Church. Along with her partner Irina Shido, they are sent to retrieve or destroy the stolen Excalibur swords. She has blue hair with part of her hair dyed green and is first seen wearing traditional Christian clothing. When Xenovia discovers that the God of the church no longer exists, she is exiled from the church as a heretic, becomes a devil for Rias's team as a knight, and joins the school in Issei's year. She reconciles with Asia Argento for her misdeeds towards her during their first encounter and they become friends soon after. Xenovia later moves into the Hyodo residence, Like most of the other girls, she is head over heels in love with Issei, even going so far as to seduce him by telling him she wants to make a baby with him because they both have strong genetics.[6]
Xenovia uses the Holy Sword ; however, during the battle against Kokabiel, she brings out the Holy Sword Durandal, allowing her to cut through anything. A natural Holy Sword user, she possesses the genes that enable her to wield a Holy Sword instead of having them implanted as with Freed and Irina. she has her Durandal sword fused with some of the Excalibur fragments to create, which is able to transform into one of the seven Excaliburs. When Cao Cao shatters Ex-Durandal, she repairs with the final Excalibur fragment from Arthur Pendragon, and masters the powers of six of the seven Excaliburs.. Following Sona's graduation, Xenovia is eventually appointed to the student council as its president. Ishibumi describes Xenovia as "a troublesome girl because she does things she doesn't understand herself which she regrets afterwards." and that Issei calls her a girl who a person cannot “grasp a hold of”.
is a Church follower and Issei's childhood friend. Ishibumi developed her as a character that represented someone on the Heaven/Church side of the three factions. She was a tomboy who has since styled her hair into twintails. She bears the Holy Sword, which transforms itself into any shape its user desires. Although she is saddened that Issei has become a devil, she still has feelings for him. In the storyline involving the Grigori, Irina is defeated by Freed Sellzen, and her Excalibur Mimic is taken. She is sent to the Church headquarters to recover, and returns as a representative of the Church to support Michael at the summit. She reappears in Volume 6 where she joins Xenovia and Asia as a group which Issei calls the .
Like Xenovia, she sometimes shows a lack of common sense: in one early instance, she spends her and Xenovia's money on a fake painting of a saint, and ends up having to beg for food. In another instance, when Xenovia and Asia are seducing Issei; she proclaims that it is too dirty, but clarifies that she meant the location rather than the act itself. Regardless, she is attracted to Issei and is concerned whether having Issei's babies will put her at risk of being a fallen angel.
As of volume 6, she becomes an angel with the Ace ranking, which allows her to throw spears of light. She also moves into Issei's residence. In Volume 17, she gains a second pair of wings, and later obtains her own Holy Sword, Hauteclere.
is a cross-dressing dhamphir, a half-vampire boy who is a bishop on Rias's team.. His Sacred Gear,, lets him freeze time whatever is in his field of vision, but because he is unable to control it, he is sealed in a remote room in the school, and acts as a shut-in. Ishibumi notes that Gasper's being a cross-dressing, vampire, shut-in gave him a lot of material to work with.
As a child of a Vampire Lord and a human woman, Gasper is frequently ridiculed by the Vampires, including those in his clan. Combined with his shyness and Sacred Gear, he tends to hide a lot and not make friends. After the club rescues him from the clutches of Cattleya Leviathan, he becomes more open to attending school, although he sometimes hides his face under a paper bag or hides in a cardboard box. He is able to control his power better after drinking Issei's blood.
In Volume 12 when he heard about Issei's death from Georg, who mocked Issei's sacrifice, this caused Gasper to undergo a change where he created an enormous amount of darkness that literally devoured everything (even the mist created by Dimension Lost, although where anything devoured "went" is unknown), which allows him to defeat Georg. These shadows are capable of turning into grotesque parodies of creatures.
In Volume 16, Gasper returns to his birthplace to meet up with Rias and Yuto who were confined in the Tepes Castle. He was then reunited with his childhood friend, Valerie, who became the new "King" of the Tepes Clan, but was greatly saddened to see her mentally broken due to overusing the Longinus, Sephiroth Graal, caused by Marius Tepes. Angered and disgusted by Marius and the Vampires that made use of Valerie, Gasper's hidden power awakens and he killed Marius and the Vampires that supported him. It is revealed that he was born with a fragment of the consciousness of the original god Balor, and created a different aspect of him, called Forbidden Invade Balor the Beast. Its power is so great that has the potential to become the 14th Longinus.
is the Governor-General of the fallen angels. He is interested in the Sacred Gears and collects a vast number of them to study. In the anime series, he introduces himself as a regular patron of Issei, asking him to accompany him for drinks or to play video games. However, he formally introduces himself halfway into the second anime series. He becomes the club's advisor and a teacher at Kuoh. Ishibumi created Azazel with the role of a coach, so that he does not participate in Rating Games, and also, along with Yuto Kiba, appeal to the female readers of his series. He also uses him as a "strong and cool explanation character." .
According to Sirzechs Lucifer, Azazel dislikes fighting, which was the reason why the Fallen Angels were the first to retreat from the war. He is very laid back and relaxed, He meets up with the leaders of the Devils and Angels to form a truce. While fighting with Cattleya Leviathan, Azazel is forced to cut off his arm in self-defense and replaces it with a prosthetic arm made from his Sacred Gear research. Azazel has a self-made artificial Sacred Gear that is used to seal Fafnir, the Golden Dragon and one of the five Dragon Kings.
Azazel's artificial Sacred Gear,, takes the form of a jewel, as its core and its exterior are fragile, and forcefully activates its Balance Breaker, the, which creates a Golden Dragon Armor that is similar to Issei and Vali's Scale Mail. He also has a second artificial Sacred Gear called the .
In Volume 12, Azazel resigns from his post as Governor-General of the Fallen Angels, which is now succeeded by Shemhazai, and became Grigori's Advisor of Special Technology and supervisor for Issei's town.
is a silver-haired Valkyrie who excels in Norse magic, first appearing in Volume 5 of the light novels, and in the third anime series.[7] She wears white armor or a business suit. Introduced as Odin's bodyguard, Rossweisse always prevents him from doing dirty things; however in retaliation, Odin always teases her for being a Valkyrie that has no boyfriend. Eventually, after the battle with Loki and Fenrir, Odin leaves her in Issei's town and later gets persuaded by Rias to become her servant, her ranking being "Rook" alongside Koneko, and remains in Kuoh Academy as a teacher.
Unlike most of the female characters who already have a crush on Issei, she is still figuring out if she likes him or not. She is extremely bitter on the fact that she does not have a boyfriend and gets angry when she is made fun of for that. Odin uses this several times to knock the wind out of her when she is protesting or interfering with him doing something vulgar. She has a tendency to buy things at sales when they're cheap, allowing Issei to coin for her the nickname . This also shows during the Kyoto trip when Issei used dress break on her so he could peep on the female students in the hot springs by her getting mad and lecturing him about destroying her clothes before being embarrassed about being naked. She moves into the Hyodo Residence in Volume 8. She left to train with a Norse mage she knows in Volume 11 and returns in Volume 12 after learning new, powerful defensive spells along with how to combine them with the defensive traits of Rook. Thus, gaining enough power to defend against Balance Breakers and even the equivalent of 10x the damage that Heracles' Balance Breaker can create.
In Volume 14 both the Gremory and Sitri groups are surprised to hear her speak in an unpolished, country voice while talking to her grandmother in her homeland. Also, its noted that part of the reason she is so concerned about money is that she has been sending money over to her grandmother, to help out since the area her hometown is in is described as having nothing and essentially barren. She is currently pursuing two goals, the first is to create a school to teach devils how to become Valkyries, and the second is to open a discount store that carries everything in her homeland. In Volume 17 she asks Issei to pretend to be her boyfriend to convince her grandmother Göndul that she is safe in her new life as a devil and as teacher. During her date with Issei, she mentions that when she was a student she wrote an essay that could show a way of sealing the Trihexa (666). Sona invites her to be an expositor at the inauguration of her school and even offers her a position as teacher in a few years. Euclid Lucifuge tries to kidnap her not only for the information, but also because he sees her as a replacement for his sister Grayfia. She helps Issei defeat him and it becomes clear that she has finally fallen in love with him.
is the blonde-haired younger sister of Riser and a former member of his team. She first appears in volume 2 of the light novels as a bishop who has yet to reveal her true powers. She follows her brother in the belief that no one could defeat him. After witnessing Riser's defeat, she becomes infatuated with Issei (albeit with tsundere tendencies), and later transfers to his school so she can spend more time with him. Ishibumi notes that Ravel's popularity with readers after volume 6 prompted him to make her a main character.
When Ravel was young she developed a great fondness for the hero stories that her butler told her. As a result, she dreamed of becoming a woman who could become a support for her ideal hero but as she grew older she slowly forgot this dream. Watching Issei fight for the sake of the woman he loves at Riser's engagement party reminded Ravel of her forgotten dream and instilled a desire to understand everything about him.
As the story develops, she falls in love with him completely, and does not mind becoming his concubine so long as she can be with him. She is currently a "free" bishop: her mother (who does not participate in Rating Games) traded one of her unused bishop pieces to Riser for Ravel. She has later traded herself to become one of Issei's Bishops when he has gained peerage, as she wanted to be of use to Issei. She moves into the Hyodo Residence in Volume 10 and enrolls in Kuoh Academy as a first-year student, alongside Koneko and Gasper. She is in Koneko's class at school and despite the two of them bickering often (paying homage to the vitriolic relationship between cats and birds, given their species), they are very close friends. Currently, she is one of Issei's managers (alongside Grayfia) and had been tutoring him so that he is able to pass the written part of the exam to become a Middle-Class Devil. During the events of Volume 12, the Phoenix family indicates that not only are they going to allow her to "stay" at Issei's house to "attend school", they are also hoping that she enters into an intimate relationship with Issei (for various reasons).
, known as and the, is a dragon that is said to be more powerful than God and the devil kings; she also has the ability to transform into a black-haired humanoid. She organized the Chaos Brigade with the hopes of getting rid of Great Red from the Dimensional Gap. However, she was betrayed by Cao Cao who stole her power under the intention of creating another Ophis, rendering her in a presumed powerless state. Cao Cao, however, underestimated her, as she has released her powers in forms of snakes before Cao Cao came to steal her powers. As such, she did not lose most of her powers. Like Great Red, Ophis does not like to interfere in the matters of the world, having interest only in Great Red. As such, she is more of a figurehead than a leader of the Chaos Brigade, and any plans or acts not pertaining to Great Red were by the will of the members, not hers.
In Volume 12, she is rescued by Great Red and helped him in restoring Issei's body. The two seem interested in Issei, and both were saying "Zoom Zoom Iyaaan" after the battle with the Jabberwocky to Issei and Ddraig's dismay. Although she does not say it, she is probably very fond of Issei, as he is her first friend and had offered her a home in his house in Volume 11. This is a big deal as she had helped protect Asia and Irina later in the volume simply because they had tea and played cards together. According to Issei, Ophis is not evil, just naïve and did not mind being used by the Chaos Brigade, as they had promised to kill Great Red for her. Currently, the faction heads have used numerous seals to hide her presence. This is to avoid upsetting members of their factions and hide her from the remaining members of the Chaos Brigade. Even with the power stolen from her, they are aware that she is too powerful to control, but are allowing her to stay with Issei to encourage the interest she seems to be showing for him. She later moves into the Hyodo Residence at the end of Volume 12 to continue "observing" Issei, saying she has a vested interest in him as a part of her was used to recreate Issei's body with Great Red's flesh. Currently, she seems to be welcoming the feeling of having an actual home and friends, even to the point of not attempting to do any significant damage to Great Red other than kicking him during the time she and Issei were riding his back.
represent one of the three major supernatural groups (the others being the fallen angels and the angels in a three-way struggle over the control of the world). Because of the great war hundreds of years ago, the devils have become few in number, so they have organized themselves by a feudal system in which the higher-ranked devils lead a small group of up to 15 servants, each of whom is designated by a piece in the game of chess, and has enormous powers. The servants are lower-ranked devils, some of whom are made from humans. However, if a devil were to free themselves from their master they are known as a stray devil and are to be executed. The devils overall are led by the, who are titled by devil names from folklore.
, known as in school, is a black-haired glass-wearing student council president and the third most popular girl behind Rias and Akeno. As a devil of the Sitri family, she is Rias's childhood friend and rival. Her Evil Pieces initially consist of girls, except for Genshiro Saji, who is the only male. She specializes in using water-based magic, which is accentuated when near large bodies of water. In Rating Games, she uses a "technique" strategy which is effective against the power-type strategies employed by Rias. Following her graduation, she realizes her dream of opening Aurea Academy, a Rating Games school for devils regardless of their rank and status. However, the school is attacked by the Hexennacht during an open house event.
Sona's Evil Pieces include council members Tsubaki Shinra (queen) and Genshiro Saji (pawn). She also has: (rook); (knight); (bishop); (bishop); (pawn); (rook), who is a werewolf magician; and (knight), who is half-Grim Reaper.
is the Student Council Secretary and Sona's Pawn who became a Devil through the use of four Pawn pieces used by the latter. He is in love with Sona, expressing a desire to sleep with her and "accidentally" impregnate her so that they would get married. He is very supportive of Sona's dreams, stating that her dreams are his dreams. So much so that in the Rating Game with the Occult Research Club, he tapped into his life force to power up his abilities and inflict serious damage on Issei before losing their one-on-one duel, but gaining recognition from the VIPs watching the Game. He plans on helping fulfill Sona's dream by becoming a teacher. However, he is extremely jealous of Issei's relationship with his master, Rias, being called by name by Sona, and having ecchi encounters with beautiful girls while he (Saji) is not even registering on Sona's radar as a potential boyfriend.
He is in possession of a Sacred Gear called, which holds the soul of Vritra, the Black Dragon and one of the Five Dragon Kings. One of Absorption Line's abilities is to fire a rope to grab someone. Originally it was split up into four individual pieces with him only having a portion of it, but eventually Azazel gathers all the pieces and combines them together for Saji. His three remaining Sacred Gears are,, and . Saji is far from being able to control the power of Vritra, and would usually go out of control when used extensively. In Volume 7, it is revealed that Saji can enter into a Dragon King form called . However, while he does start conversing with Vritra like Issei talks with Ddraig, he can only handle so much power for so long without going berserk. Also, Vritra says Saji will go berserk if Issei uses Boost and Transfer to increase Saji's power. Fortunately for him, he is willing and able to endure grueling training and hardship to get stronger as he wants to surpass his friend, rival, and fellow Pawn Issei. In Volume 17, despite being out powered he bravely stands against the Evil Dragon Grendel. When the Magician Walburga tries to kill Sona, he takes the blow for her and as Vritra returns to help him, he finally reaches the power of the Balance Breaker, called Malebolge Vritra Promotion, that combines their minds and whose power comes from the most powerful curses of the Underworld.
Introduced as Rias' fiancé, is a high-ranking devil and the third son of the Phoenix family. He wishes to marry Rias to preserve a full-blooded devil lineage, although he enrages Issei when he shamelessly fondles his queen piece . Rias notes that he can regenerate quickly like the creature of the same name, and has a strong record in the Rating Games; his losses so far have been on purpose to allies. Riser's Evil Pieces consist of 15 girls who are hired by him, which makes Issei envious. In addition to "Bomb Queen" Yubelluna, who uses explosive fire magic, there are: Riser's sister Ravel (bishop); (knight), a sword maniac who uses fire and wind attacks; (knight), who wields a giant broadsword that sends shock waves; (rook), who wears a mask covering half of her face; (rook), who uses Chinese Kung Fu and emits flames from her hands and legs; and (bishop). Riser's pawns include: Mira; Ile and Nel, twin sisters who wield chainsaws; Ni and Li, twin catgirls; Shulyer; Marion; and Byurent.
Although he defeats Rias in the Rating Game, he is challenged by Issei at his engagement party with Rias, and loses when Issei uses Balance Breaker Scale Mail to attack his mind (the one thing he cannot easily regenerate).. Afterwards, he falls into a slump and develops a fear of dragons. He recovers from his slump in Volume 10 of the light novels, giving advice to Rias on Rating Games and warning Issei that should he mistreat his sister Ravel, he will burn him to a crisp. He reappears in Volume 12 alongside his brother to cheer up his sister and the Gremory Team before leaving to fight alongside his brother.
, nicknamed the is the most powerful of the Great Devils, more so than the previous Lucifer. He is the older brother of Rias.
He is a wizard-technique type where he uses his Power of Destruction in forms of several orbs that he can control at will. When he focuses and concentrates strongly he can use a move he calls which only destroys his target. This is shown once when he had a sphere enter Creuserey's mouth and destroy the snake that was in his stomach, without causing any damage to Creuserey himself. As stated by Azazel, the reason why he was chosen as a devil king due to his overwhelming ability to nullify magic. However, Milicas comments during his visit to the Gremory Household that Grayfia is the strongest member of the Lucifer team (most likely because he doesn't know about his "other" form.)
In Volume 12, he goes into the front lines to protect the Underworld, where he revealed his "true form" in which he converts himself into the Power of Destruction called the that destroys everything regardless of his will. According to Azazel, he compresses his demonic powers to the size of a human shape, and has demonic powers that are ten times more powerful than the original Lucifer. His father also mentions to Azazel that he is a Super Devil and a mutation of a Devil, possibly so different that it might be a mistake to even call him a Devil. Because of this, being a devil king was the only role for him.
He is Grayfia's husband and father of their son, Milicas Gremory.
In the English subtitles, Sirzech's name is misspelt as Sir Zechs. However in the original source material his name is officially spelt Sirzechs.
include: (pawn), a Chinese Qilin who escorts Grayfia and brings luck to the Hyodo residence; (knight), a reincarnation of Okita Souji who is Yuto's swordsmaster and moves at God-like speeds; (rook) a clone of Surtr that went berserk and the Norse Gods abandoned him; (rook) who helps transports his group but can also annihilate grunts; (bishop), a master magician; and (pawn), a descendant of the original Beowulf who is said to be among the top five pawns in the Underworld.
Lucifer's given name is a portmanteau of Gundam franchise characters Char Aznable and Zechs Merquise.
is the white-haired wife of Lucifer. She serves as the Queen in his group as well as a maid in the Gremory household. She is the mother of Milicas Gremory. Grayfia comes from the House of Lucifuge, a family of pure-blooded Devils from the Extra Demons whose family served under the original Lucifer. She is a Devil on par with the Four Maous, and is known as the "Strongest Queen". She once challenged Serafall for the spot of Leviathan. She is nicknamed the and uses ice-based magic. For some reason, she does not appreciate having family titles or ties to the Gremory family mentioned while a maid. As a maid, she always acts in a cold, calm, and professional manner with extremely rare instances of emotions showing in her face or voice. This is because when she is a maid she wants to do it completely, which has resulted in her having a relationship with the Gremory family as a maid. One of the few instances she showed emotion was in Volume 2 during her conversation with Issei just before she gave him the magic circle to crash Riser's engagement party and release a griffin to ride home on. She acts and expects to be treated with the difference between a noble and servant, although she still reserves the right to chastise Lucifer and Millicas if they act improper or acknowledge her as part of the family and not a maid or Sirzech's Queen. She enjoys doing small tasks and housework and it seems easier to move around doing simple matters as a maid than the wife of a devil king. Every now and then, she will take a day off as a maid and become a high-class lady who is to be acknowledged as a noble lady of the Gremory Family, Sirzech's wife and Rias' older sister. While maintaining the proper demeanor of a noble lady, she does allow emotions to show on her face and is less reserved around others. So far, she has only been seen to take a day off once in the Extra Life chapter of Volume 8 in the light novels. During that chapter, she acted more friendly with everyone and even showed embarrassment over her (Grayfia's) romance with Lucifer is a legend among young, female devils and Koneko mentioning their courtship had been made into a play.
is Sona's older sister and one of the Four Great Devils. She is introduced as a cosplayer with a magical girl dress who visits during the school's open house. This prompts Issei to coin her the nickname . She has a deep sister complex, going as far as threatening to attack Heaven for not being informed of the school's open house by her little sister. Adding to her childlike personality, she calls Sona and refers to others with the "-chan" honorific. She is the devil king in charge of foreign affairs (other factions). Coming from the Sitri Clan, Serafall is highly skilled in water-based magic while specializing in ice-based magic, and has an attack called . Despite the childlike attitude she definitely has the power to hold the position of devil king since she was able to take out a Bandersnatch all by herself. She also has her own show called "Levia-tan" in competition with the Oppai Dragon show based on Issei.
is the Vice-President of the Student Council and Sona's Queen. Her relationship with Sona is similar to that of Rias and Akeno. She is the fourth most popular girl in the school, and also wears glasses. She is a master swordsman who faced Yuto and Xenovia on separate occasions during their Rating Game. While she manages to defeat Xenovia, she failed to gain the upper hand against Yuto by sword skills alone. Her Sacred Gear,, reflects double damage but cannot be summoned twice in a row without a cooldown period. After losing to Yuto at the Rating Game between their masters, she develops a huge crush on him. Also like him, she seems to prefer fighting with just swords and her Sacred Gear while leaving magic attacks to her group's King and Bishops. Her magic level should be higher than average as her group's Queen.
is the next heir of Bael Family and Rias' cousin. Unlike Rias and Sirzechs, Sairaorg did not inherit the Power of Destruction from his lineage. Because of this, his younger brother was the one who had been chosen to become the heir of the Bael Family. Misla encourages him to become stronger in other ways, which resulted in him training his body with martial arts, pushing himself to his utmost limits to become powerful. With this strength, he defeated his younger brother, restoring his position as the next heir. Sairoarg desires to become one of the four Maous to prove himself, as well as to prevent others from feeling the same pain he felt.
Appearing in Volume 5 during the Young Devils Gathering, he fought against Zephyrdor Glasya-Labolas in a Rating Game which he and his team won with little effort. He faced Rias in a Rating Game in Volume 10, defeating Yuto, Xenovia and Rossweisse before he and his Pawn, Regulus, challenged Rias and Issei. Sairaorg overwhelms Issei, until the latter achieved his Cardinal Crimson Promotion, where both engaged in a relentless fist fight. He later fought against Heracles in Volume 12 and easily defeated the giant. In Volume 16, he and his peerage join the DxD team to help fight the remnants of the Chaos Brigade.
Due to the extreme training that his body had endured, he gained an enormous amount of toki, a form of physical energy, and is a martial arts master. He can also utilize the Balance Breaker armor of,, one of the Longinus which he luckily encountered when its host died.
include: (Pawn), a Nemean lion whose revival consumed seven pawns; (Queen), who has elemental powers, ability to create holes, and reflect attacks; (Rook), (Rook) who can transform into a dragon; (Knight) who rides a horse; (Knight), who manipulates gravity; (Bishop) who tries to counter Issei's Dress Break ability;, (Bishop) who can seal an opponent's ability.
, formerly known as, is one of the Four Great Devils; he is Diodora's older brother and the creator of the Evil Pieces system and Rating Game. Ajuka is the only Devil that can rival Sirzechs in strength. He remodeled Issei's Evil Piece that gave him the ability to activate Illegal Move Trident. Ajuka has a special ability called the, which allows him to turn every phenomenon into equations and formulas and control it to make it into a special move of his own by increasing its speed and power. Ajuka is extremely powerful, as revealed in Volume 12 when he finishes off some of the servants of the Old Maou Faction who attacked him by turning their own powers against them, and it was mentioned that of the current Maous, only he and Sirzechs surpass the original ones.
He is also a Super Devil and mutation of a Devil like Sirzechs.
Stray devils are devils who have betrayed or killed their masters.
An unnamed Stray Devil who is an anime-exclusive character in the OVA episode "I'm Harvesting Breasts!" He was captured by the Occult Research Club and interrogated by Grayfia in the Underworld. Before being killed, he revealed that he created the Breast Chimera so that every flat-chested girl in the world would have large breasts.
A creation of the Gentleman Alchemist and the main antagonist of the OVA episode "I'm Harvesting Breasts!" It is a plant with a Dragon-like features, and has the ability to produce breast-like fruits by feeding off spiritual energy from women's breasts, specifically the much bigger ones like Rias and Akeno's. According to Grayfia, the Gentleman Alchemist created the Breast Chimera so that every flat-chested girl in the world would have large breasts by eating its fruit. It was defeated by Rias' boosted Power of Destruction.
are angels who used to serve God but because of their corrupt emotions, have descended into the underworld, and battle against the devils. Their appearances are similar to those of the angels, albeit with black wings and lacking a halo above their head. Even though they have been cast out from Heaven, fallen angels have somehow retained the ability to use light-based weapons. However, they receive damage like devils do if they pray to God. The is a group of fallen angels and humans also known as the Ones Who Watch Over the Children of God. Members include humans exiled from the Church and Sacred Gear wielders. Like devils, they mainly live in the Underworld.
Supporting Raynare are the following fallen angels:, who dresses in a trenchcoat and fedora;, a blue-haired woman in a minidress who is the first one to be hit by Issei's Sacred Gear attack; and, who has blonde hair dresses as a Gothic Lolita.. The fallen angels are eventually killed by Rias.
are the beings from Heaven, which in Ishibumi's DxD world, supports all the religions, including the Church that Asia and Xenovia were part of. They have the powers to inflict pain upon devils due to their light-based powers. They have white wings (golden wings for Archangels) and a halo above their head. During the great war between the three factions (angels, fallen angels and devils), God and the original Four Devil Kings die. The angels are unable to increase their numbers until the creation of the system which reincarnates humans into angels and assigns them positions associated with playing cards, much like the devils and their Evil Pieces. Meanwhile, the archangel Michael takes over maintenance of the system and keeps it a secret from the followers of the Church.
Some of the deities associated with mythology make appearances in the series:
The was an organization led (as a Puppet King) by Ophis, the Dragon God, with the main purpose of removing Great Red, the most powerful Dragon in existence known as the True Dragon, out of the Dimensional Gap. It consists of a mix of beings from the fallen angels, humans, and angels.
The is a team of seven members of the Chaos Brigade. Their main goal is exploring, going on adventures, and finding strong opponents to battle. Ishibumi developed the team as a way to introduce some of his Norse mythology characters and that this team would have the most interaction with Issei among the Chaos Brigade's groups. Eventually, the Vali Team join the DxD team against the remnants of the Chaos Brigade.
Fenrir has two sons: and .
The is an organization of the Chaos Brigade consisting of descendants of the original Maous. They are the only group of Devils who resist using the Evil Pieces system, as they believe them to be a disgrace to Devils because they reincarnate Humans and other races into Devils. They are also against the Devils' current system, and seek to change it by overthrowing the current Maous. Vali Lucifer is part of the Old Maou Faction before his defection and organization of the Vali Team. The remaining three leaders are eventually defeated, with the remaining members killed by Ajuka Beelzebub.
The is a faction of the Chaos Brigade led by Cao Cao, the descendant of the ambitious ruler of China during the Three Kingdoms era. The faction is allied with Hades, the God from the Realm of the Dead, and it is also the most dangerous faction of the Brigade due to its members being Sacred Gear, Holy/Demon Sword, and Longinus wielders. The Hero Faction was defeated in Volume 12 when Indra sends the majority of its main members, Cao Cao, Georg and Leonardo to the Realm of the Dead, taking all of their Longinus from them. Siegfried died in battle while Jeanne and Heracles are captured.
He is a calculative and observant person, as he studies and research on his enemy before he battles them so he can read their movement and attacks. In Volume 9 he lost one of his eyes to Issei's attack, and later replaces the lost eye with Medusa's eye, granting him the ability to turn anything to stone. He is a technique-type who has polished his technique to utmost perfection. Because he is a human, he is physically weaker than Issei and Vali, yet in Volume 11 he singlehandedly takes down the Gremory and Vali groups while protecting Georg and Samael, which results in Vali calling him the "strongest human".
His Sacred Gear is the, the ultimate Longinus and the same spear that St. Longinus used to kill Jesus Christ. His Balance Breaker,, is a sub-species that is much stronger than the actual Balance Breaker of the True Longinus, . His Balance Breaker creates seven bowl-sized orbs called the, each having a different ability. The True Longinus also has a forbidden form called the, which is similar to the Juggernaut Drive.
Originally from the Chaos Brigade, Cao Cao betrayed them when he stole Ophis, their leader's, power and sided with Hades, the God from the Realm of the Dead, in an attempt to destroy both the Devils and Fallen Angels. After losing to Issei in Volume 12, Cao Cao, Georg and Leonardo was sent to the Realm of the Dead after having their Longinus confiscated by Indra. In Volume 18 he's released by Indra and decides to help the DxD face the threat of the Qlippoth and the Evil Dragons, while he still wishes to have a rematch against Issei.
His Sacred Gear is, a common Sacred Gear and the Sacred Gear Raynare mistook Issei to have possessed. Since it is a sub-species, instead of a gauntlet, it creates a third Dragon Arm on Seigfried's back and doubles his power. Its Balance Breaker,, allows him to have four Dragon Arms growing out from his back, with his power doubling for each. As a result, he has six Arms in total (including his real arms) in his Balance Breaker form. He has all five Demon Swords – Gram, Balmung, Nothung, Tyrfing, and Dáinsleif – and one Light Sword in his possession.
He fights Kiba and Xenovia by himself and defeats them with ease in Volume 9. In Volume 11, he has a rematch with Kiba, resulting with the latter cutting off one of his Dragon Arms. In Volume 12, he fought against Yuto for the third and final time, injecting the blood of the original Maou which transforms his body into a monsterous spider while fusing with his Demon Swords. He eventually lost to the latter after Gram left him and chooses Yuto as their new wielder, corroding into dust after his defeat.
Aside from carrying a rapier, Jeanne wields the Sacred Gear, which is the Holy Sword version of Kiba's "Sword Birth" that can create numerous Holy Sword of different attributes. Her Balance Breaker,, is a sub-species and it creates a Dragon made out of Holy Swords.
His Sacred Gear is called, which has the ability to explode the same time it attacks. Its Balance Breaker is called, which shoots missile-like objects.
He has a : A Sacred Gear that grants him the ability to control shadows.
make up some of the most powerful beings in High School DxD. Most of the dragons are neutral and do not ally with the three factions. Besides Ophis there are the following dragons:
is the Red Dragon residing in Issei's Boosted Gear.. Nicknamed the and the, he has the power to destroy gods and devils. In the past, Ddraig battles dragon arch-rival Albion, but their struggle was interrupted by the great war among the three factions. In anger, both dragons attacked the leaders of three factions, which led to their bodies being destroyed and their souls moved to two separate Sacred Gears. Ddraig communicates telepathically with Issei on various occasions, giving him advice on his fights. He finds Issei's lecherous goals to be demeaning, and gets annoyed whenever Albion and others call him the "Breast Dragon Emperor", even crying whenever he hears the word "breast". In Volume 16 he and Albion resolve their differences and allow Issei to unlock the powers they once had, yelling they are no longer afraid of breasts and butts.
, known as the, English Dragon, and the, is the white dragon residing within Vali Lucifer in the latter's Sacred Gear. Like Ddraig, Albion communicates telepathically with Vali., and is annoyed to the point of crying that Issei is so obsessed with breasts. This became even worse after Odin, who wanted to know Vali's interest in women, called them the . In Volume 16, he and Ddraig solve their differences and both yell they are no longer afraid of breasts and butts.
, called the, is one of the two Dragons that are above the Heavenly Dragons known as the . The second largest Dragon after Midgardsormr, Called the, and, Great Red lives in the Dimensional Gap and does not interfere in the world.
In Volume 12, Great Red helped Ophis and Issei by saving them from the crumbling dimension and restored Issei's body with his powers. He also lends Issei his power during his fight with the Jabberwocky created from Leonardo's Annihilation Maker, claiming that the "Beast" (referring to Jabberwocky) was glaring at him. After the battle, he returns to the Dimensional Gap while saying "Zoom Zoom Iyaaan" (from Oppai Dragons theme song) over and over to Issei and Ddraig's dismay.
Great Red represents dreams, he also is called the
are group of supernatural monsters from Japanese folklore. There are many species of yōkai. Kunou and Yasaka are, while Koneko and Kuroka are, a sub-species of . Other types of yōkai include Yuki-onna, Kappa, Karasu-Tengu, and Nue. The ones shown so far are led by Yasaka in Kyoto. For Devils to visit, permission has to be requested ahead and special "tickets" given, allowing access to the various shrines and temples without feeling fear from Holy elements or receiving damage from traversing Holy Ground.
Sun Wukong carries a staff that extend and retract in size and length in battle. He is a master of Senjutsu and Youjutsu as well, being capable of rejuvanating Issei with a single touch of his staff. He is currently looking for Bikou, which the latter speculates that it is because he joined a terrorist organization (Chaos Brigade). In Volume 16 he becomes the Sub-Leader of the newly formed DxD Team. He decides to train the Longinus users of the DxD so they are capable of facing God-level opponents.
are a race of supernatural creatures even more proud and aloof than Devils. While some Devils, particularly the Gremory clan, treat their slaves/servants like family or allow advancement in rank, while for a Vampire to be treated as high-class, they have to be born into a high-class Vampire family. Transformed vampires are despised and eternally low-class and none of the clans are considered to even be close to treating their slaves even remotely as family. Gasper is despised for being half-human, his out-of-control Sacred Gear, and apparently the "Darkness" Vampire powers he used to defeat Georg. Like the stories tell, Vampires are weak against sunlight, garlic and holy items. Although Gasper's clan, the Vladi, have a clan trait of being Daywalkers, meaning sunlight won't kill or hurt them any more than it does Devils. Vampires are mostly cut off from other groups by preference, and word is that fighting between clans broke out shortly after one clan got hold of a Longinus user.
Theron Martin of Anime News Network praised the character development, in which Rias "gradually starts to be attracted to Issei for his unqualified admiration and devotion," and calls Asia Argento "a fairly typical helpless, innocent, kind-hearted moe type, one who becomes interesting in part because her transition from being a nun to being a devil is fraught with problems." He also said that Issei's "interactions with his perverted best friends [Matsuda and Motohama] are also occasionally good for laughs, as are his own reactions to situations and his amusing alarm clock."[9] Martin praised the English voice acting of Scott Freeman, Chloe Daniels and Felicia Angelle, but said that Teri Rogers made "Akeno sound cheerfully friendly without ever really infusing in the suggestive and sadistic undertones" and said that Jamie Marchi "often does not sound quite right as Rias even though she performs the role well."[9]
Davey C. Jones of ActiveAnime said that the characters "have a good range of different types, no one looks the same, and each has an individual personality and powers."[10] A reviewer for T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews said that "[TNK's] animation is generally doing those characters all kinds of favors" and although the reviewer said that the English voice actors are "a bit of an uneven bunch," the dialogue "keeps itself on a relatively informal level, with gratuitous usage of generally inoffensive sexual slang on the parts of Issei and his two friends."[11] Sheena McNeil of Sequential Tart not only liked the diversity of the characters, but also liked the designs and personalities in them. McNeil also praised the Japanese and English voice acting in the series as well.[12]