History Literature / HighSchoolDXD

The anime is licensed by Creator/{{FUNimation}} for both subtitles and English dubbing, while the original light novels and the manga adaptation are both licensed by Creator/YenPress. As of February 2020, the anime's first season is also available on Creator/{{Netflix}} in Europe. Two licensed games have also been made, one for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, based on the anime's first season, and one (free-to-play and digital only) for the UsefulNotes/PlayStationVita, instead based on the anime's second season. Unfortunately [[NoExportForYou these two games won't seem to see the light of the day overseas anytime soon.]]

* BellyDancer: In the second OVA from Season 1, Issei becomes possessed by the mummy of an Egyptian Magician named Unas, who is just as perverted as Issei. Unas claims that he'll only release him if they remove the curse that binds him. The methods of removing it being perverted in nature; the first is Rias dance in a skimpy belly dancer outfit.

* BedmateReveal: In volume 1, a naked Issei wakes up after getting injured by Dohnaseek and discovers an equally naked Rias sleeping next to him.

* CallBack:
** In Volume 3, Xenovia and Irina recognize that Asia is a heretic, which harkens back to her backstory in volume 1 when she was branded as a heretic and exiled from the Church.
** In Volume 7, Koneko dresses up in a white dress and enters her SuperMode form to heal Issei's life force after using Juggernaut Drive in the same manner that Akeno used when she tries to heal him of his dragon power in volumes 3 and 4.
** [[spoiler:In Volume 23, Xenovia's strategy to gain the upper hand against tha Brave Saints is similar to the one Koneko suggested to give Akeno a power boost during their fight against Diodora's peerage in Volume 6.]]

** It's also not the first time Rossweisse's English VA Mallorie Rodak voiced a girl who underwent a ShamefulStrip, as she also voiced Yukino Agria in ''Fairy Tail''. Bonus points for both characters having white hair.

* ClingyJealousGirl: Rias is like unto [[Manga/AhMyGoddess Belldandy]] with how jealous she gets over other girls wanting Issei around. She's perfectly diplomatic about most things except any deals involving Issei. Then, she'll glomp him into MarshmallowHell just to show whoever is asking that he's hers and hers alone.

* CosmicFlaw: In volume 3, an enraged Kiba unlocks the [[SuperMode Balance Breaker]] form of his Sacred Gear [[SpontaneousWeaponCreation "Sword Birth"]], and performs the impossible act of [[YinYangBomb creating a holy sword out of demonic energy]]. This confirms some of the older characters' suspicions that both {{God}} and {{Satan}} are long dead, and the laws of reality are no longer operating as intended. In fact, Sacred Gears (originally created as a way for God to empower human champions) were never intended to be {{Evolving Weapon}}s at all, and the ability of some of them to kill gods is likewise a relatively new development.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Issei's fight against Riser. He sacrifices his left arm in order to obtain some powers from his Sacred Gear. But more importantly, since it's no longer technically his arm, he is able to hold the cross and utilize holy water against the otherwise undefeatable Riser without the usual repercussion of a devil holding holy items and taking damage.

* DownerBeginning: In Volume 1/Episode 1, Issei ends up dying at the hands of Raynare and later gets overpowered by Dohnaseek after [[FirstEpisodeResurrection Issei gets reincarnated as a devil]]. He gets better.

* EtTuBrute: Issei's reaction to Raynare's true colors is of utter shock and betrayal.

* BrokenPedestal:
** Xenovia loses her trust with the Church after learning that GodIsDead at the end of volume 3.
** Baraqiel became one to Akeno Himejima years ago. She deeply loved her father as a child, but then, her mother Shuri was killed and Baraqiel failed to save her. Akeno disowned her father and went into exile. She makes several points to Issei about how Baraqiel wasn't around when she needed him the most, even saying it to the latter's face. It becomes a RebuiltPedestal when Issei helps Akeno reconcile with her father for good.
** Odin becomes one to Rossweisse at the end of Volume 7. She is introduced as his bodyguard, often taking care of him on trips and supporting his life. She often tries to get Odin off of his perverted antics. Unfortunately for Rossweisse, Odin abandons her after the battle with Loki. Since then, the mere sight of Odin will immediately set her off.

* EarnYourHappyEnding:
** At the end of the first arc, despite going through a HeroicBSOD and being betrayed by Raynare, Issei finally gets Rias as his girlfriend and he becomes friends with Asia.
** By the end of volume 4, the Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils held a successful peace conference and end up forming TheAlliance, ushering in a new era of peace.
** Towards the end of volume 10, Issei finally snaps out of his HeroicBSOD he suffered from Raynare's betrayal thanks to his friends, and he and Rias profess their love for each other following their Rating Game against Sairaorg.

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* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: While there are plenty of magic spells and supernatural powers being thrown around, some characters manage to [[SuperWeight weigh in]] purely by physical skill. A shining example is Sairaorg, who is one of the strongest physical fighters in the serieseven without his [[SuperMode Breakdown the Beast]] with nothing to his name but hard work and determination.

** In Volume 12, while still suffering from Samael's curse, Vali vaporizes Pluto into dust.

** Odin pays a visit to Issei's house and was hanging out with Azazel. Ophis also visits Issei's house in volume 11.
** After the end of volume 12, she becomes their mascot.

** Issei's second untimely demise does quite a number on the Occult Research Club by volume 12.

** Volume 12 starts out depressing after what happened in the previous volume. And then, it's now at Issei's perspective of the story where the first few things that he says is that he can't even make out with Rias anymore with his current spirit form.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: While Fafnir had perfectly understandable reasons to kill Rizevim, actually carrying them out brought the world into an unprecedented level of peril thanks to Rizevim's last-minute unsealing of Trihexa.

* BoobsOfSteel: Inverted, at least as far as the Occult Research Club goes. Rias and Akeno (the most buxom) are primarily magic users, and the club's strongest physical fighters are Xenovia (around the median) and Koneko (the flattest).

* MsFanservice: Rias and Akeno have BoobsOfSteel, are considered the 2 idols of school, and are incredibly beautiful {{Shameless Fanservice Girl}}s.

* {{Bishonen}}: Issei, Kiba, Sairaorg, Vali, Cao Cao... Many of the boys in the series are quite nice-looking.

* SerialEscalation: How ''much'' can Issei power up using Rias's breasts!? How high of a JustForFun/HolyShitQuotient will the fights be worth in this series!? Which mythology will be the next one introduced!? ''What kind of new perverted power-up can Issei pull off next!?'' [[RuleOfCool Yeah it's]] [[WidgetSeries that kind of series.]]

* BloodKnight: [[TheRival Vali.]] And [[DarkChick Kuroka]]. And [[NumberTwo Bikou]]. And Cao Cao. And [[AxCrazy Freed]]. And [[OmnicidalManiac Shalba]]. And [[SexIsViolence Akeno]]. And... [[OverlyLongGag you get the point]].

* ForWantOfANail:
** If Azazel didn't have Raynare murder Issei because of his Sacred Gear, not only would she not go out on a date with Issei, but Rias wouldn't have transformed him into a Devil after he was fatally wounded, he wouldn't have befriended Asia, Raynare's plot to steal her Sacred Gear would've never been discovered, and Azazel wouldn't have joined the Occult Research Club.
** If Zeoticus didn't arrange for Rias to marry Riser, not only would Issei not have his EngagementChallenge, but Rias would've never continued to pursue her relationship with Issei, and Ravel wouldn't have transferred to Kuoh Academy and joined the Occult Research Club.
** If Diodora hadn't stabbed himself and had Asia heal him, she wouldn't have been exiled from the Church as a heretic, she wouldn't have formed a friendship with either Issei, Xenovia or Irina, and Diodora wouldn't have been curb-stomped by Issei.
** If Xenovia and Irina would've just found the Excalibur swords by themselves instead of teaming up with the Occult Research Club, Xenovia wouldn't have encountered Asia, the truth that GodIsDead wouldn't have been discovered, Kokabiel wouldn't have captured by Vali, Xenovia wouldn't have been excommunicated from the Church as a heretic and befriended Asia, and Kokabiel's plans for the Great War would've gone ahead.
** Azazel sent Baraqiel on a mission, only for the latter to be wounded, discovered by Shuri Himejima, and have their daughter, Akeno. If Shuri wouldn't have been killed by her own relatives, Akeno wouldn't have disowned her father and joined the Occult Research Club, and she ultimately wouldn't have started a relationship with Issei.
** If Azazel didn't negotiate a peace treaty between the Fallen Angels, Angels and Devils, the Khaos Brigade would've never been discovered, Vali wouldn't have gained a rival-turned-friendship in the form of Issei, the youkai wouldn't have formed an alliance with the devils, Kunou wouldn't have befriended Issei, Yasaka wouldn't have been rescued by Issei and Sun Wukong wouldn't have helped Issei defeat Cao Cao.

* WouldHitAGirl: Pretty much almost every male in this series has no problems fighting against women at all. That said, Issei is still punished quite often for his perversions, usually by Koneko. It still manages to sidestep the UnprovokedPervertPayback trope since Koneko does only lash out when provoked, and Issei takes the blow because he can be a sport when he knows he deserves it.

* DeathByDisfigurement: Rizevim loses an arm to Vali, then gets his legs crushed and is ultimately devoured by an enraged Fafnir.

* DeathByDisfigurement: Lucifer loses an arm courtesy of Vali before he's snapped up by Fafnir.

* WingedHumanoid: Everyone that's on one of the three factions. The Angels and their Fallen former comrades have the feathery kind (normal angels have white wings while those of Fallen Angels are black), Devil wings are more bat-like or perhaps Draconic.

** Deliberately {{enforced|Trope}} by Fujimi Shobo; otherwise, we can pretty safely assume this series would've gone in a whole other direction. [[RuleThirtyFour Many fans are eager to circumvent this.]]

* RuleThirtyFour: Hoo boy... While there's the CantHaveSexEver clause the author has to follow, fans are happy to give Issei some (well-deserved) coitus. All in all, this series is very much "Rule 34-friendly".
* RuleSixtyThree: An InUniverse example, thanks to Azazel's gender-swapping gun in one of the short stories.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** Azazel and Baraqiel are ''directly'' responsible for Akeno's final transformation into a devil. Azazel dispatches Baraqiel, who marries Shuri Himejima and having their daughter Akeno in the process. Unfortunately, it led to the Himejimas killing Shuri because they resent Fallen Angels. When she saw Baraqiel, Akeno was ''not'' amused and they became estranged.
** Zekram having the old devils murder Cleria when she found out about the illegal "King" piece allowed the Rating Game corruption to be left virtually unchecked for years.
** Issei destroying one of Cao Cao's eyes didn't exactly end well when he gets a rematch with replacing his now-missing eye with Medusa's eye.
** Zekram kept the truth about Cleria's relationship with Masaomi Yaegaki hidden, which later allowed the resurrected Masaomi to catch members of the Great King Faction and exorcists off-guard and kill them.
** While Fafnir had perfectly understandable reasons to kill Rizevim, actually carrying them out brought the world into an unprecedented level of peril thanks to Rizevim's last-minute unsealing of Trihexa.

** Diodora's plan involves having Raynare kill Asia Argento, but it ends up backfiring on him when Issei rescues her and proves to be a more formidable opponent for stopping his later plans. And him using Ophis's snake against Seekvaira Agares caused Azazel and Sirzechs to throw a monkey wrench in the Khaos Brigade's plans.
** Sure, Kokabiel telling the Occult Research Club that GodIsDead was a shocker, but it does end up contributing to Xenovia and Irina joining the club in the long run. It's also the catalyst for Azazel to set up a peace treaty between the Three Factions, kill Katerea during the Khaos Brigade's assault on Kuoh Academy, and help form an alliance in the volume 4 finale.
** Despite needing Yasaka for the ritual to summon Great Red, Cao Cao invites Issei, his friends and Kunou to Nijo Castle just so they can witness the Hero Faction's efforts. This results in Issei and Sun Wukong coming together to foil Cao Cao's plan.
** Cao Cao replacing his old eye with Medusa's eye comes back to haunt him as it gives Issei a major weakness to exploit.

** Rizevim's destruction of the Carmilla and Tepes territories causes the vampires to put aside their racism for better or worse and contributes to Elmenhilde joining Issei's team. Also, his kidnapping of Issei's parents and makes Issei transform into a Dragon in front of them, hoping to emotionally break Issei by having his parents reject him. Instead, they support him until Diehauser is demoralized and Issei gets a new power-up. Issei even thanks him for getting the issue of revealing his identity over with.

* ForegoneConclusion: Issei having children with his haremettes in the future.

** Issei is willing to kill to protect the younger members of his harem and his future children as Shalba and Loki discover.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Shalba's murder of Diodora is bad enough, but since Diodora had been established as a {{sadist}}ic HopeCrusher to nuns, and openly gloated about his plan to rape and murder Asia to Issei's face, he gets absolutely zero sympathy from the audience.

* ArrogantGodVsRagingMonster: Almost an EnforcedTrope. [[ManaDrain Divine Dividing]] is the "Arrogant God", capable of stealing half the opponent's power to fuel the wielder's technical skills. [[GatheringSteam Boosted Gear]] is the "Raging Monster", doubling the holder's power every ten seconds to obvious effect. It's further reinforced in the current generation, where Divine Dividing is held by [[TheRival Vali Lucifer]], a BornWinner with enough Devil-power to fuel usually suicidal abilities with no drawback and plenty of experience as a SpiritedCompetitor[=/=]BloodKnight. Meanwhile Boosted Gear belongs to [[TheHero Issei Hyoudou]], a completely unremarkable human who couldn't even manifest his Sacred Gear until after his FirstEpisodeResurrection.
** As the plot wears on, the trope gets examined further. In particular, their fights make Issei realize that having SuccessThroughInsanity is only going to get him out alive so many times, and as soon as he's trained enough brute strength to avoid a HeroicRROD the first thing he does is start including more technique in his regimen. This makes him [[BoxingLessonsForSuperman exactly as dangerous as it sounds]].

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: If you are a leader of a faction, one of the minimum requirements is that ''you have to kick ass''.

* OneManArmy: [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Any of the leaders of the factions]], [[EmpoweredBadassNormal Issei]] plus his rivals, and the [[PhysicalGod Gods]].

The light novels began publication in 2008 and suddenly ended its run on March 20, 2018 with the 25th volume. A new light novel series replacing ''[=D×D=]'', appropriately titled ''LightNovel/ShinHighSchoolDXD'', was announced in the afterword.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: In the finale of Volume 25, [[spoiler:the 16 teams who are participating in the Azazel Cup preliminaries]] advance to the finals, setting the stage for ''LightNovel/ShinHighSchoolDXD''.

** RuleThirtyFourCreatorReactions: Ishibumi himself seems to support ''[=D×D=]'' erotica, even jokingly stating that he's gotten enough red-lights material from his fans to write boatloads of hentai doujins, or even make actual sex scenes with Issei and his haremettes if it wasn't for the ExecutiveMeddling.

** Played straight for ''Hero'', where Koneko, Venelana and Asia are ''significantly'' more buxom than they were in either the light novel, manga or the anime's first three seasons. In Asia's case, her bust matches her light novel's counterpart.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Most of the time, Issei just acts like a horny teen with nothing on his mind but {{b|uxomIsBetter}}oobs - his main 'ambition' is to have his own Harem, and he tends to dramatically proclaim his next 'target'... such as "sucking on Rias-sempai's breasts!" Even after he becomes a Devil, he's still just a '[[ChessMotifs pawn]]', he's terrible at making Pacts with mortals, and can't even use the Magic Circles to travel unaided. However... when he's forced to fight, particularly in defense of [[ChivalrousPervert the girls he cares about]], he can and will kick epic amounts of ass. And yet he continues to have little self-confidence, failing to realize how impressive he looks from the outside. In an unusual twist on this trope, however, he's actually at his most badass when the two sides of his personality are in balance, since he can literally draw destructive power ''from his lust''.

* BuxomIsBetter: Definitely deserves a mention considering the entire reason Issei even ogled Rias in the first place (kickstarting the foundation for his harem) were her shapely, round mounds. And of course ''all'' of Issei's future women end up having big breasts (either by already having them or growing them out as a part of a growth spurt) as seen in MarryThemAll. ''And'' there's the Oppai Dragon, an in-universe fictional character that is all about booby power!

* TrivialTitle: "High School [=D×D=]". The story takes place at a high school, so the first part is justified, but "[=D×D=]"? Well, apart from being a StealthPun[[note]]"[=D×D=]" > "DD" > "[[BuxomIsBetter Double-D]]"[[/note]], the title does come up a few times - firstly as the title of Great Red, the "Dragon of Dragons", and secondly as the name of a team created in Volume 16. In Volume 20 Issei's new form is called D×D.