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"I'm going to make this school my harem!"
Issei Hyoudou

High School D×D is a Light Novel series written by Ichiei Ishibumi, illustrated by Miyama-Zero and published by Fujimi Shobo that has been adapted into a manga (with a Lighter and Softer Spin-Off titled Asia and Koneko's Secret Contracts) and a popular anime produced by TNK which continued with a fourth season premiering in April 2018, this time animated by Passione. The anime is rated R15+ in Japan. The series is well-known for mixing fanservice with a compelling story and developed characters. A lot of characters, with many of those based on almost all religions and mythologies. It can be best summed up as a mix-and-stir of To Love Ru (or Girls Bravo) and Shin Megami Tensei.

Our hero, Issei Hyoudou, is a second-year student at the prestigious mostly-girls school Kuoh Academy. Life is great when he is asked out by a girl named Yuuma Amano. Having never had a girlfriend before, he accepts. The date goes well... until Yuuma reveals herself as a Fallen Angel, stabs Issei through the stomach and leaves him to die. Luckily, Rias Gremory, the school's beautiful, crimson-haired sweetheart, and high-class Devil finds him and resurrects him to act as her servant Devil and work for her and three other Devil students in the school's Occult Research Club. The Club soon stumbles upon mysterious plans that threaten to possibly undermine their lives.

The anime is licensed by FUNimation for both subtitles and English dubbing, while the original light novels and the manga adaptation are both licensed by Yen Press. As of February 2020, the anime's first season is also available on Netflix in Europe. Two licensed games have also been made, one for the Nintendo 3DS, based on the anime's first season, and one (free-to-play and digital only) for the Play Station Vita, instead based on the anime's second season. Unfortunately these two games won't seem to see the light of the day overseas anytime soon.

The series also has a prequel, called SLASH/DOG, which was actually started before D×D but published after the latter's success, and a spin-off called D×D EX.

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 Shin High School D×D, was announced in the afterword.

Not to be confused with So, I Can't Play H! (which started airing an anime around the same time with a similar red-haired Magical Girlfriend and perverted male protagonist), or the similarly-named High School Of The Dead and Shinjuku D×D. Don't confuse the DxD part with D&D.


High School D×D provides examples of:

    open/close all folders 

    Tropes A to D 
  • Accidental Pervert:
    • Generally there's nothing accidental about the situations Issei gets caught in, but that time his mom found him sleeping naked next to Rias was totally innocent.
    • Also, when the girl's kendo team catches him next to a hole in the wall of the girl's changing room, he actually hadn't been peeping. Not that he didn't want to, though.
  • Action Girl: So far, almost all female devils (except Asia) are pretty good at ass-kicking anyone with either physical or magical attacks. Crosses over with Damsel in Distress much of the time, though, with Defeat by Modesty a major plot point.
  • Actual Pacifist: Asia has absolutely no way to deal damage or hinder enemies in combat. She just has the series most powerful healing ability and later becomes a Stone Wall with her Fafnir armor.
  • A-Cup Angst: Koneko. It even becomes a plot point in the first OVA: a demon creates a plant that gives girls big breasts. Issei, being the pervert that he is, actually tries standing up for the monster, thinking that maybe big breasts aren't all bad. Koneko, on the other hand, has a huge Battle Aura, and has a gigantic tree trunk over her head, ready to take that thing out.
  • Adaptational Curves:
    • Inverted for the anime, where Ravel Phenex is depicted with smaller-than-expected breasts, apparently to make her look more like the "little sister" niche she was actively filling (long story). Ishibumi has gone on record stating he considers this artist error, and her appearances in later seasons give her a chest more in line with novel illustrations.
    • 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.
  • Adaptational Modesty: The manga greatly cuts down the frequency of nipples displayed. For that matter, breasts are also smaller.
  • Adaptational Skimpiness: In the light novels, Raynare continues wearing the same outfit from her date after revealing she’s a fallen angel. The anime swaps this out for a Chainmail Bikini.
  • Adaptational Wimp:
    • While Fenrir’s still touted as powerful enough to bite Gods to death in the anime, the protagonists have a much easier time beating him into submission.
    • In a sense with Thanatos. The mythical Thanatos was a Protogenoi, the son of Nyx and Erebus and the personification of Death, thus feared by all mortal beings. In the story, he's pretty much reduced to your regular Grim Reaper, with all the things that it entails in-universe.
  • Adaptation Distillation: Subverted with the third anime season, BorN. The season is essentially an adaptation of volumes 5 through 7, just condensed and with some rather major divergences, especially in the second half. It was one of the major factors for Ichiei Ishibumi writing the EX spin-off light novel, turning the last four episodes of that season into an Alternate Continuity.
  • Adaptation Dye-Job:
    • While Rias's eyes are turquoise in the first three anime seasons, they're colored blue in the the original light novels as well as the fourth anime season.
    • In the original light novel, Momo Hanakai's hair is colored black. In the anime, her hair is white instead.
    • For the second and third seasons of the anime, Vali's hair color is changed from light silver to dark silver and his eyes change from hazel to blue.
    • In the light novel, Katerea has purple eyes. The anime, on the other hand, changes her eye color to blue-grey.
    • In BorN, Millicas's eye color is changed to blue to match Rias's eye color. His eye color does eventually change back to red in Hero.
    • While Loki's uniform is white in BorN, Loki wears a black version of Odin’s robes in the original light novels.
    • Grayfia's eyes, which are red in the light novels, are changed to silver in the anime to match her hair.
    • While Diodora had blond hair in the original light novel series, his hair is dark green in the anime.
    • Zephyrdor's hair color was originally green in the light novels. His hair is changed to blue in the anime.
  • Adaptation Expansion:
    • In the light novel, the scene where Rias gives Issei 1,000 spankings as punishment for going behind her back is treated as a brief gag. In the anime, it's expanded to a full scene where Issei tries to absolve Koneko of any blame, so she won't be punished alongside him.
    • Every anime episode has at least one scene that isn't in the light novels. Some show events that Issei hears about but doesn't witness (e.g., Rias luring out and killing the three fallen angels), while others are shameless Fanservice that ties into the overall plot loosely if at all (e.g., Rias and Sona's sauna scenes).
    • In BorN, Loki has a larger role to the point where he curses Issei and Rias, due to a future version of him creating alternate timelines as depicted in EX.
  • Adaptation Induced Plothole: The anime depicts Rias and the Occult Research Club watching over Issei as he meets Raynare, and Rias ordering them not to approach him despite the danger Raynare possesses, implying she was waiting for Raynare to kill him so she could recruit him into her peerage. However, the only reason Issei is revived at all is because of a Summoning Crest given to him by Rias' familiar, who was handing them out to people indiscriminately. Him having it is what summoned her and led to his revival, something that wouldn't be needed if she was watching over him like the anime depicted and was expecting him to die. Furthermore, its made clear that someone doesn't have to die to be recruited into a peerage, as demonstrated by Sona's pawns Saji and Ruruko, and later with Xenovia and Rossweisse, raising the question that if Rias really wanted him to join her peerage, why didn't she just ask him upfront? The anime takes what was a revival by pure chance in the source material and turns it into a case of "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot in the anime.
  • All for Nothing:
    • Kokabiel's attempt to start another Great War fails: the three of the seven Excaliburs he stole are retrieved and sent back to Rome; Kokabiel's plot to kill the Gremory family have been foiled; and on top of that, he ends up being overpowered by Vali and captured by Azazel to be frozen in Cocytus.
    • The Khaos Brigade's efforts to take over the Underworld and plan to kill Great Red go up in smoke: Katerea is killed by Azazel after her attempts to foil a peace treaty between the Three Factions fail; Creuserey is killed by Sirzechs and Azazel while trying to avenge Katerea; Shalba is overpowered by Issei; the Hero Faction's attempt to transform Yasaka into the Nine-Tailed Fox and summon Great Red are foiled thanks to Sun Wukong and Yu-Long teaming up with Issei to beat them in Kyoto; Shalba's attempt to exact revenge on the Devils leads to his death; and the Old Satan Faction is dissolved after their leaders' deaths.
  • The Alliance: The Christian faction as a whole (includes angels, fallen angels, and devils).
  • All Just a Dream: The 2nd special episode where Issei has an erotic dream of Akeno giving him a private lesson. Upon waking up, he finds himself hugging Asia, which prompts an angry response from Rassei.
  • All-Loving Hero: Archangel Michael. He's really deserving of his title.
  • All Men Are Perverts: We start with Issei, but he's definitely not the most perverted guy ever. The only male character who doesn't seem to even be remotely close as a pervert is ironically Vali, his rival.
  • All Women Are Lustful: While Issei is well known for his sex drive, there are many, many situations initiated by the girls in which even he is taken aback.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In Volume 4, Katerea's forces invade Kuoh Academy during the meeting between the Three Factions.
  • Almighty Janitor: Issei himself is this seeing as Rias had to use all 8 of her pawn chess pieces to even have him as a servant. Saji is also this to a lesser degree.
  • Alternate Continuity: In the backstory for EX, Loki breaks out of prison in the future and curses Asia, then goes back in time with the Underworld Lifeforms and causes havoc with the past, resulting in various new timelines, one of which is BorN.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Plus older siblings, when they show up on Class Inspection Day. To give you an idea, Sona's older sister Serafall Leviathan, one of the four demon overlords, shows up cosplaying as a Magical Girl (from the Show Within a Show) and acting like a young ditzy teen, much to the former's embarrassment. Rias's father, Zeoticus, also takes some embarrassing footage of her in class, and shows it to Issei's parents during the same arc. And then, judging from how his parents act... No wonder Issei is so perverted.
  • And the Adventure Continues: In the finale of Volume 25, the 16 teams who are participating in the Azazel Cup preliminaries advance to the finals, setting the stage for Shin High School D×D.
  • Animation Bump: Deliberately invoked by Passione for the fourth season, Hero. The animation is much more detailed and fluid as opposed to the previous three seasons or Passione's previous works.
  • Another Dimension: All rating Games take place in one as well. Cao Cao traps the group in one in Volume 11 as well.
  • Anyone Can Die: Several characters die throughout the series, including (but not limited to):
    • The Red Dragon Emperor's Awakening - Raynare & her alliesnote .
    • Birth of the Breast Dragon Emperor - Valper Galilei, Freed Sellzen, Diodora Astaroth, and half of the Khaos Brigade's leadersnote .
    • The Heroic Oppai Dragon: Pluto, Shalba Beelzebub and the Old Satan Factionnote .
    • The Legend of Oppai Dragon and his Lively Companions - Marius Tepes, Yamata no Orochi, Masaomi Yaegaki, Nidhöggr, Rizevim Livan Lucifer, Apophis and Azi Dahaka.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Subverted when Santa and aliens are brought up. Issei (in the former situation) and Kiba (in the latter) briefly sound skeptical before reminding themselves that they live in a world where All Myths Are True.
  • The Armies of Heaven: While they don't exactly do much fighting, the angels do have a large military presence in the series.
  • Arrogant God vs. Raging Monster: Almost an Enforced Trope. Divine Dividing is the "Arrogant God", capable of stealing half the opponent's power to fuel the wielder's technical skills. 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 Vali Lucifer, a Born Winner with enough Devil-power to fuel usually suicidal abilities with no drawback and plenty of experience as a Spirited Competitor/Blood Knight. Meanwhile Boosted Gear belongs to Issei Hyoudou, a completely unremarkable human who couldn't even manifest his Sacred Gear until after his First-Episode Resurrection. Their fights make Issei realize that having Success Through Insanity is only going to get him out alive so many times, and as soon as he's trained enough brute strength to avoid a Heroic RRoD the first thing he does is start including more technique in his regimen. This makes him exactly as dangerous as it sounds.
  • Art-Shifted Sequel: HERO - the anime adaptation's fourth season - sees a switch from TNK to Passione and with it the art style changed from a sharp, shonen-like art style to an overall softer-looking style that is much more in line with the light novel's original illustrations.
  • Artistic License – Religion:
    • Ichiei Ishibumi said that he already knows that there are different types of the Christian religion. Ishibumi still made it all in one to minimize the hassle.
    • The nature of demons, angels, and all other divine beings have been completely rebuilt to be applicable to a shonen series.
  • Ascended Demon:
    • Subverted with Asia. Even after becoming a devil, she is still very devout and attempts to pray and read the Bible frequently. However, she is always stopped midway by sharp headaches that emerge as a result of devils not being allowed near the presence of God. She along with Xenovia are eventually allowed to worship freely again after Issei asks Archangel Michael to give them permission post the three factions uniting in peace.
    • Happens with Xenovia as well, even after it is revealed that the original God died in the last war.
  • As Lethal as It Needs to Be: Kiba's Sword Birth only seems to be effective against mooks, that is when he actually uses it.
  • Asshole Victim: Shalba's murder of Diodora is bad enough, but since Diodora had been established as a sadistic Hope Crusher 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.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: If you are a leader of a faction, one of the minimum requirements is that you have to kick ass.
  • Back from the Dead:
    • Issei is killed by Raynare, a Fallen Angel, in the first volume, but is revived by Rias as a devil.
    • Asia is also killed by Raynare at the end of the first volume when the latter steals her Sacred Gear. She too is revived by Rias as a Bishop.
    • This happens to Issei again after being "killed" by Shalba in Volume 11.
  • Badass Adorable: The girls may look beautiful but most of them are strong enough to easily destroy buildings.
  • Badass Army: Take all of the crew mentioned below in Badass Crew plus the Heaven's Brave Saints squad, use Executive order to form a special counter-terrorist task force, and you get the SOCOM-esque D×D team. Azazel, Sirzechs, and Michael even plan on making a JSOC version, codenamed "ExE"
  • Badass Crew: You have the Occult Research Club, Khaos Brigade's Vali Team, the Kuoh Student Council, Sairaorg's team, and then there's Khaos Brigade's Hero Faction.
  • Badass Family: The Gremory family. When you've got the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess (Rias), the Silver-Haired Queen of Annihilation (Grayfia), and the Brunette Madame of Extinction (Lady Gremory) gunning for you, you might wanna run away pretty fast.
  • Badass Fingersnap: How Issei activates his Dress Break finisher after tagging his targets.
  • Badass Normal: Sairaorg lacks any special power but trained his body hard enough that he can defeat any of the devils in his generation with ease. Only Issei can stand up to him among the new generation of devils.
  • Bad Present: The last three episodes of BorN expicitly takes place in an alternate reality thanks to Loki traveling back in time from the future.
  • Bait-and-Switch Lesbians: Most of, if not all the yuri scenes between the girls of the Occult Research Club are done just to get Issei into the mood before the compulsory Moment Killer.
  • Balanced Harem: For the most part. Rias is the main heroine and Issei's favorite, but he gives a fair share of attention to every member of his harem and openly intends to Marry Them All. Rias is only more equal than the others by virtue of being their King and each relationship gets plenty of focus and development.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: In the anime's opening the girls (most noticeably Asia) have nipples but the crotches of barbie dolls, but early in the manga even Issei lacks nipples, though in the manga the girls use Godiva Hair too.
  • Bare-Handed Blade Block: The original Son Wukong uses only one finger against Cao Cao's True Longinus.
  • Bash Brothers: Whenever Kiba isn't laying on the Ho Yay subtext on Issei, they have this sort of relationship.
  • Bathos: Being part of the Ecchi Harem Genre with a Lovable Sex Maniac as our protagonist, this show is inevitably going to have this:
    • Issei's Big Damn Heroes moment in Volume 2 to rescue Rias from her engagement to Riser is topped by "President Rias Gremory's virginity belongs to me!"
    • In Volume 4, Issei is still outmatched by Vali in combat, so Azazel encourages a dramatic power up by informing Issei that Vali will shrink Rias's breasts, prompting our hero to beat the shit out of Vali.
    • In Volume 6, when Issei goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge upon Asia's presumed death, Rias realizes that she will have to let Issei poke her nipples in order to save his life from his Deadly Upgrade.
    • In Volume 10, Asia, Koneko, and Akeno strip off their clothing to provide Issei with Intimate Healing in order to cure his ten volume long Heroic BSoD resulting from being killed on his first date, and despite the nudity displayed throughout, the You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech given to Issei by his harem is never undermined.
    • Also in Volume 10, when Issei is losing to Sairaorg, Irina leads the children in the stadium to cheer for Oppai Dragon by chanting "Oppai" repeatedly. It works.
    • Volume 11 has Rias transfer power to Issei with her breasts, causing them to shrink, and causing them to melodramatically declare their love for each other, prompting the Occult Research Club to defend the Sickeningly Sweethearts from the Khaos Brigade.
  • Batman Gambit: In Volume 19, everyone figures that the Khaos Brigade would try to attack once the battle with the rogue exorcists started dying down, so they set up countermeasures to shut down their Evil Dragon Mooks and sealed off the area from them pulling a "Villain: Exit, Stage Left".
  • Battle Couple: Even after becoming lovers, Issei and Rias can still kick ass.
  • Battle Harem: All of the main female characters in the Occult Research Club are very competent members of the team in battle, and they all eventually become part of Issei's slowly-growing harem (though not initially).
  • Be Careful What You Wish For:
    • Subverted with Issei. Issei gets his wish to get a girlfriend when Raynare asks him out. Unfortunately, he gets more than what he bargains for when Raynare kills him. Then, Rias shows up and becomes his first real girlfriend.
    • Azazel has Raynare kill Issei due to the thread of the latter's Sacred Gear. Naturally, this comes back to haunt them both when Issei gets transformed into a devil and later awakens his Sacred Gear.
  • Bed Full of Women: Happens various times to Issei throughout the story, though the crowning example is at the start of Volume 14. He even gets kicked out his own bed due to just how many girls are beside him.
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: In chapter 8 of volume 1, it's at least heavily implied that Jesus' power came from a Sacred Gear.
  • Berserk Button: If you're going to strip for Issei to nullify his Dress Break, for the love of God, do not take your panties off before your bra.
  • Big Bad: There are various antagonists in the series whose are responsible for all the danger in it.
    • Volume 1: Raynare, the fallen angel who kills Issei and Asia.
    • Volume 2: Riser Phenex, the pureblood devil son of a high-class family and Rias's arrogant fiance.
    • Volume 3: Kokabiel, a rogue fallen angel who has stolen the pieces of Excalibur.
    • Volume 4: Katerea Leviathan, a member of the Old Satan Faction who attacks the club at the peace conference.
    • Volume 6: Diodora Astaroth, the strange heir of the Astaroth clan who's obsessed with Asia and has been coordinating an Evil Plan to kidnap her since the very beginning, and Shalba Beelzebub, who forms a Big Bad Duumvirate with him.
    • Volume 7: Loki, an evil Norse God.
    • Volume 11-12 and 24: Hades.
    • Volume 18-20: Rizevem Lucifer becomes the most powerful member of the Khaos Brigade through his leadership of the Qlippoth Faction.
    • Volume 21: Trihexa becomes the main threat to the heroes until it's sealed.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Rias and her crew frequently save their allies from time to time.
  • Big Eater: What Koneko Toujou lacks in portion size, she makes up for in consistency. Whenever she's seen during downtime, she's constantly snacking on something, yet somehow keeps her figure as a tiny underclassman. Possibly justified by her position as a Rook, those insane feats of strength she casually performs must burn calories pretty efficiently. Plus her less active (albeit older) sister is... significantly curvier.
  • Big Fancy House: Rias's house in the Underworld and later on, Issei's house becomes this.
  • Big "NO!": Rias when her mother asks Kiba to clear out her room of the wooden bears she's been collecting.
  • Bittersweet Ending: A staple of the series:
    • At the end of the first arc, Raynare and her mooks are dead, Asia and Issei join the Occult Research Club after Rias transforms them into devils and Issei and Rias become lovers after he defeats Riser, but Raynare's betrayal has taken a toll on Issei's emotions and the Fallen Angels now know of his Sacred Gear.
    • In the second arc, Kokabiel has been captured; Kiba comes to terms with his past; the Excalibur swords are recovered; Xenovia and Irina are transformed into a devil and an angel, respectively; Azazel leads a successful peace conference with the Three Factions; Katerea, Creuserey and Diodora are killed; Azazel becomes the club's advisor; and Xenovia and Irina reconcile with Asia. However, Xenovia is excommunicated from the Church, Vali escapes and Shalba is still out there.
    • Surprisingly, the canon spin-off EX revealed that the girls in Issei's harem will have a truly bittersweet future: Issei succeeded in his goal of becoming the "Harem King" and is revealed to have married every girl in his harem. On the downside, due to Issei's fame in Underworld, he's too busy beating up supernatural invaders to the point of almost (and potentially) neglecting his wives and kids. Lampshaded by the author, who said he wanted an ending where the characters don't have a 100% happy future.
      • It's worth noting that the only person who suggests Issei is actually neglectful is Ex, who has a massive case of Hero Worship towards his father. Its implied the reason he's angry Issei didn't prevent the attack on Asia (Issei was dealing with a dozen other simultaneous assaults by God-level beings) is because he didn't care, as Ex believe Issei is more or less all-powerful.
  • Black Comedy Rape:
    • Downplayed in the English dub of the first rating game. After Issei uses Dress Break on three of Riser's pawns, Sona's response is "It's a little rapey".
    • Issei's plan to abuse Gasper’s ability to stop time would definitely constitute sexual assault.
  • Book Ends:
    • The anime begins and concludes with the same scenes for each of the three seasons, with slight differences.
    • The final scene of BorN is one for TNK's entire run. Their first outing has Rias watching Issei and his friends from afar in the Occult Research Club's building and she does the same here, this time watching the entire Occult Research Club.
  • Boss Rush: The entirety of volume 16 pits the group against: Grendel, Crom Cruach, Rizevim, and Euclid.
  • Blood from the Mouth: Issei coughs up blood after being fatally wounded by Raynare.
  • Blood Knight: Vali. And Kuroka. And Bikou. And Cao Cao. And Freed. And Shalba. And Akeno. And... you get the point.
  • Breather Episode: Episode 7 of season 2 is a fairly lighthearted pool episode, following some rather brutal fighting from the previous one.
  • Brick Joke: Sirzechs' suggestion to Issei to use Gift on Rias's breasts in Volume 4. Seven volumes later, it shows Issei replenishing his aura at the cost of Rias's breasts shrinking.
  • Broad Strokes: While Hero retcons the last four episodes of BorN out of existence, it does retain some of the storylines in volume 7 such as Koneko healing Issei's life force from his Juggernaut Drive.
  • Broken Masquerade: Issei's parents find out about his true nature in Volume 20 after being forced to drink dragon blood by Belial and Rizevem.
  • Bullying a Dragon:
    • Raynare probably shouldn't have picked a fight with Rias and Issei like that. Also, her mooks mocked Rias to her face regarding Issei's trauma. It did not go well for them, at all.
    • The Old Satan Faction intends to kill off the Four Great Satans, who are viewed by them as unworthy successors. It backfires on them big time when the faction's leaders are killed.
    • Diodora decides to underestimate Issei's powers as the Red Dragon Emperor when he attempts to rescue Asia. It doesn't work.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Anybody who is in the high ranks are this. Sirzechs, Serafall, Azazel, Odin... take your pick.
  • Butterfly of Doom: Loki's alteration of the anime's timeline leads to the events of BorN.
  • Butt-Monkey: Compare everyone in the Occult Research Club and Issei. A good amount of the time Issei is going to take the brunt of some damage from events like sports, rumors, or from Azazel's crazy experiments.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: 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 Marry Them All. And there's the Oppai Dragon, an in-universe fictional character that is all about booby power!
  • Call-Back: 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.
  • Canon Discontinuity:
    • Invoked by Ichiei Ishibumi when he wrote EX, which effectively retcons the last four episodes of BorN (such as Loki using his curse on Rias and Issei) out of Canon into an Alternate Continuity.
    • Given that the fourth anime season's first episode reboots the end of volume 6 before going straight into volume 9, Hero ignores the last three episodes of BorN in favor of only needing the audience to be familiar with the light novels that particular season has adapted and the first eight episodes of that season.
  • Canon Welding: While at first, it seems that Tobio Ikuse was just a Canon Immigrant from the flopped version of SLASHDØG, With the introduction of Tobio's teammates and Akeno's extended family on the Himejima side, most of which were introduced in the rewrite of SLASHDØG, it became this. The two stories also get welded with Ishibumi's first work, Denpachi which he wrote simply for a contest Fujimi Shobo was holding, due to the protagonist of that story, Kanzaki, being mentioned in Volume 24 and shows up in Volume 25, thus properly making it The 'Verse.
  • Can't Catch Up: Beginning to show shades of this in the light novels in regards to the other members compared to Issei and Kiba, but especially Issei. They both start off as relatively weak members of the Occult Club with Issei being by far the weakest and Kiba being only around Koneko's level at best. Rias and Akeno at this point were far stronger. Then Kiba and Issei master Balance Breaker and everyone is left coughing in the dust. This is best exemplified when Issei was able to beat Sairaorg Bael using his Balance Breaker whereas Kiba, Xenovia and Rossweisse (the three strongest in the Occult Club with Kiba being by far the stronger of the three) only managed to cut off an arm of Sairaorg without Balance Breaker and the rest likely couldn't even scratch him. Right now, Issei is by far the strongest member of the Occult Research Club, with Kiba just behind. This has been subverted in the later volumes, as the girls begin to acquire their own methods of fighting at that level. Issei remains the strongest, but the others are no longer irrelevant.
  • Can't Have Sex, Ever:
    • Deliberately enforced by Fujimi Shobo; otherwise, we can pretty safely assume this series would've gone in a whole other direction.
    • An in-universe example with Koneko. As a Nekoshou, Koneko can bear children even at her age. If she did, both she and the child would likely die. Issei tells her they should wait, and she agrees.
    • Downplayed with Angels; they can have sex, but they must undergo a lengthy ritual beforehand and maintain thoughts of pure love without lust during the act to avoid falling. Half Human Hybrids of humans and Angels are known as "Miracle Children" because the process is so risky. Irina is later provided with a special doorknob to exempt the associated bedroom from the rules so she and Issei can cut loose when they're ready.
  • Casting Gag:
    • Ayana Taketatsu (Koneko's VA) previously voiced a cat god, Mayu.
    • Koneko has white hair and cat ears in her nekomata form. This is not the first time her English actress Jad Saxton played a cat-like creature before, as she voiced Carla in Fairy Tail.
    • It's also not the first time Rossweisse's English VA Mallorie Rodak voiced a girl who underwent a Shameful Strip, as she also voiced Yukino Agria in Fairy Tail. Bonus points for both characters having white hair.
  • Cat Fight: Rias and Akeno are prone to hurling insults and magic blasts at each other while competing for Issei.
  • Cat Girl: The Nekomata. Koneko and her elder sister Kuroka are a special variant called the Nekoshou.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The series gets an overall darker tone for the fourth story arc, eventually culminating with the self-sealing of Sirzechs and the Archangels to defeat Trihexa. Ishibumi, however, stated that for the fifth and final arc of the story the series will go back to its humorous, fanservice-happy roots.
  • Chainsaw Good: Riser's two pawns, who are also twins, uses this against Issei.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: While there are plenty of magic spells and supernatural powers being thrown around, some characters manage to weigh in purely by physical skill. A shining example is Sairaorg, who is one of the strongest physical fighters in the serieseven without his Breakdown the Beast with nothing to his name but hard work and determination.
  • Chess Motifs: The very nature of the Ratings Games, where players in a team are designated either as King, Queen, Bishop, Rook, Knight or Pawn. Within the Occult Research Team, Rias is the King, Akeno as the Queen, Kiba and Xenovia as Knights, Asia and Gasper as Bishops (with Ravel as a free agent from Riser's team), Koneko and Rossweisse as Rooks, and Issei using up all of Rias's eight Pawn pieces.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Asia showing the holy water to the club room proves instrumental to Issei when he needed to defeat Riser.
    • Back in Volume 4, Issei absorbed some of Vali's powers by infusing a part of the White Dragon Emperor's shard in him, thus being able to use Divine Dividing with only a Million to One Chance of it working.
      • In Volume 10, while Issei's almost about to lose consciousness, one of the past White Dragon Emperors appeared to him and told him to never give up and used its halving abilities to make the remnants of the past Red Dragon Emperors lose their grip on Issei. He then gets to use Illegal Trident Cardinal Crimson Queen.
      • In volume 16, Issei and Ddraig figure out a new more permanent use for the White Dragon Emperor's power, making lots of small white dragon statuettes that float around him, reflecting and dividing the power of enemy attacks (Possibly only working during the previously mentioned Cardinal Crimson Queen).
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Quite a few in this series that were mentioned at best make an appearance:
    • At the end of Volume 1 Rias alludes to her having already used her first bishop piece. The boy she used it on, Gasper Vladi, returns to become a part of the club in Volume 4.
    • Back in volume 1, Asia's past reveals that she healed a devil and that she was exiled from the church. Five volumes later, that same devil reappears in front of Asia and turns out he planned the entire thing because he wanted to break down Asia.
    • Volume 4 has Akeno alluding that she's a half-Fallen Angel half-devil and that she's unwilling to forgive her father Baraqiel for not being able to save her mother Shuri. Three volumes later, he makes an appearance and they finally get to resolve their issues too.
    • Volume 10 has a boy who couldn't make it into the autograph event, but Issei is able to sign an autograph for him backstage and tell him to not cry at all. At the climax of his and Sairaorg's match, that same kid encourages the other kids that Oppai Dragon will never give up, thus kids reaching out to him to keep him from giving into Juggernaut Drive.
  • Chick Magnet: Not so much in the beginning Issei, but after being reborn...so many hot women are after him.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Issei. Sure, he might be an unabashed pervert who is eternally enticed by boobs, but he treats women with due respect and dearly loves his harem, to the point that maiming it either physically or psychologically warrants death. Just ask Shalba and Riser!
  • The Chosen Many: For something to be so rare, there sure are a lot of Sacred Gear users in the setting. That's not counting, according to Ichiei Ishibumi, the thirteen Longinus users, one of which is Issei's Boosted Gear.
    • During Volume 16, Gasper's Sacred Gear reaches Longinus level, making it a fourteenth Longinus. At the end of the original run, it and four other Sacred Gears are officially reclassified as Longinus (it is noted that it's weird that so many new Longinus are appearing within a relatively short period of time).
  • Church Militant: It seems the church in this setting has special squads of assassins and exorcists to deal with the supernatural.
  • Cliffhanger:
    • Episode 4 of BorN ends on one, with Rias developing a huge Battle Aura and declaring she'll never forgive Loki after Issei is severely wounded by Fenrir, one of Loki's beasts.
    • Episode 8 of BorN shows Asia fade away and presumably die just moments after being rescued from Diodora.
    • Volume 19 also ends this way, with Riser and Ravel both being MIA after their Rating Game against Diehauser Belial.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl:
    • Rias is like unto 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 Marshmallow Hell just to show whoever is asking that he's hers and hers alone.
    • Asia shows signs of it in volume 3, Rias as well. Then...Xenovia, Akeno, Irina, and Koneko just slightly.
    • The "clingy" part gets turned up to eleven in volume 14, and it is adorable.
    • To give some context to the above, the girls are acting extremely clingy towards Issei because he freaking died and they are understandably reluctant to let him out of their sight. Issei mentions this to Kiba, who (politely) tells him to shut up and let them do what they want.
  • Clothing Damage: This happens a lot in the series.
    • When Issei first gets his powers in the anime, the Fallen Angel that's attacking him, Kalawarner, gets what little clothes she's wearing blown off.
    • In Episodes 4 and 5, as Asia's Sacred Gear is stolen, her top breaks apart. This remains consistent throughout her death scene in the following episode.
    • Issei's "ultimate move" that Asia helps him practise at the training camp is Dress Break, a move that completely destroys his enemies' clothing, which outright got banned in Rating Games after the first game was over.
    • In Episode 10, when Koneko gets hit by one of Riser's traps, her already torn-apart outfit is completely destroyed.
  • Coming of Age Story: For Issei, since he becomes a powerful Devil and a hero.
  • Continuity Reboot:
    • SLASH/DØG, which serves as a prequel to Datimes;D, was originally published in 2006. By 2014, it was rebooted into the version we know today and the 2006 version was formally discontinued.
    • One particularly evil Norse god inflicts a curse on Asia before going to the past to wreak havoc on the anime's timeline with interdimensional monsters called Underworld Lifeforms, leading to the events of BorN. Fortunately, Issei's children travel back in time to capture Loki and learn how to undo the curse, with the implication being that the future Three Powers and their allies are planning to erase the BorN timeline (and any other timelines Loki has created) from existence. Unfortunately, it ends on a Sequel Hook before they can actually do so.
    • The first episode of Hero begins with a more faithful reboot of the volume 6 finale and as such, it has no connection to the BorN continuity.
  • Corrupt Church: Even the members who form La Résistance later are only doing so because they can't deal with suddenly having to throw hundreds of years of hatred and all their personal pain away like it was meaningless. The Leaders of The Alliance recognize this and instead of crushing them, purposefully have them fight people too strong for them to kill but not strong enough to defeat them, so they can let all of their suppressed hatred out and move on. They peacefully surrender afterward.
  • Continuity Nod: In a meta sense, the conversation between Rias and Sona in Episode 4 of BorN, regarding a hypothetical Rating Game between them. In the light novels, the fifth volume is where said Rating game takes place - the anime, however, incorporates elements of volume seven in addition to the previous two, and this doesn't happen due to Loki's involvement in developing alternate realities, one of which is where the last four episodes of BorN takes place in. Fortunately, Hero retconned the BorN timeline out of existence.
  • Cool Big Sis: Rias and Akeno are described as this towards the entire school.
  • Cool Versus Awesome: Fights between mythological groups radiate this trope.
  • Create Your Own Hero: Raynare killing Issei is what sets him on his journey to become a hero.
  • Crossover Cosmology: The Greek and Norse are confirmed in the novels. Heroes such as King Arthur and Cao Cao are featured as well. Telling it to the chief gods of those myths that "they're just myths" isn't exactly going to end well though.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Most of the time, Issei just acts like a horny teen with nothing on his mind but boobs - 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 '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 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.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Issei's first fight against Riser. Although he tries to be the Determinator, Riser continually beats him to the point that Rias surrenders the rating game to save his life. Issei then returns the favor in their next fight. After his training, he's delivering all the curb stomps to weaker devils.
    • Issei and Kiba vs Xenovia and Irina. The latter two win rather easily, largely due to faults the former two had, such as Kiba attempting to use a big, heavy sword which negated his speed advantage, and in Issei's case, Koneko warning Irina about his Dress Break ability ahead of time.
    • Any of Sirzechs' fights, including the one with Issei, will result in the former beating the crap out of his opponents. And he wasn't even taking it seriously!
    • Unless you're a high level devil in your peerage, facing Sona will result in this.
    • Diodora is defeated by Issei fairly easily, and is the first villain to go down without the help of the other members of the Occult Research Club.
    • Ajuka can curb stomp an army while sitting down in his chair.
    • Sairaorg delivers this to any weak opponents. Including Hercules, where Rossweiss was having a hard time against him at Kyoto, though she was drunk back then.
    • Kuisha delivers one to Akeno by repelling her Holy Lightning. She ends up on the receiving end of a brutal one from Issei immediately afterwards.
  • Cute Bruiser: Koneko is adorable enough to be considered a school mascot, and strong enough to punch you through walls.
  • Damned by Faint Praise: In episode 7, Koneko tells Issei that embroidering some headbands is "A feat outside of my expectations".
  • Dancing Theme:
    • The anime ending theme. Ye gods, the ending theme!
    • Also Credits Running Sequence: Issei in the first part of the anime ending theme. OK, it's the part no one remembers.
  • Dark and Troubled Past:
    • Everyone in Rias's group except Issei has this. Rias is the head of her household since her brother became the de facto ruler of hell, Kiba was a survivor of an illegal church experiment in which only he survived because of Rias, Koneko was saved from death after her sister killed her master, Akeno is a half-Fallen Angel due to Baraqiel being one and Shuri a human. Her mother was killed by her father's enemies. Asia has the ability to heal anything, at first the church thought it was a blessing until they found her she could also heal devils, after which they branded her a witch.
    • Issei proclaims that he has one in Volume 8. It's actually pretty funny.
    • Even Issei's parents aren't immune. Miki suffered two miscarriages before Issei was born. It puts a new perspective on all their hopes and dreams on Issei and their doting nature towards Asia.
  • Darkest Hour: Volume 11. To wit, Hades starts a war in Hell, a portion of Ophis' power was taken from her, thus rendering her unable to return to her dimension, Vali is poisoned thanks to Samael the Dragon Eater, Issei dies, and everyone else is having a Heroic BSoD.
  • Darwinist Desire: A few of the love interests for Issei, such as Xenovia and Kuroka, start off more interested in having children with a dragon for this reason. They gain reasons beyond this trope over time.
  • A Day in the Limelight: More like a volume in the limelight but everyone in the Occult Research Club has their stories centered on a certain volume. Issei and Asia for Volume 1, Rias for Volume 2, Kiba for Volume 3, Gasper for Volume 4, Koneko for Volume 5, Asia again for Volume 6, Akeno for Volume 7, Volume 9 for Kunou, volume 10 for Rias again. Ravel stars in Volume 14. Reversely, volume 11-12 take a break from focusing on the girls to show off Issei. The focus of Volume 16 stars Gasper and according to the author's notes, the emperor dragons Ddraig and Albion.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Devils are mostly just people trying to evict the Fallen Angel invaders of their home, and the fallen often have sympathetic natures and personalities. That being said, there are plenty of evil ones (lookin' at you, Diodora Astaroth).
  • Deal with the Devil: The ORC's job between crisis situation is to fulfill literal ones, but in a subversion most of them appear to be generic odd jobs that don't need any kind of demonic ability to complete. For example, one of Koneko's regular contractors is a costume designer who uses her to model loli cosplay outfits.
  • Deader than Dead: Devils and Fallen Angels can vanish forever whenever they get hit by a powerful attack.
    • Raynare is atomized by Rias's Power of Destruction.
    • Azazel runs through Katerea with his light spear and causes her to disintegrate.
    • Sirzechs uses his Power of Destruction to turn Creuserey into dust.
    • Diodora gets run through by Shalba's light spear and is vaporized.
    • Shalba gets killed permanently by Issei's final attack in volume 11.
    • Yaegaki disappears forever when Rizevim kills him to get Issei's goat.
  • Death by Disfigurement: Rizevim loses an arm to Vali, then gets his legs crushed and is ultimately Eaten Alive by an enraged Fafnir.
  • Death by Origin Story:
    • Issei Hyoudou and Asia Argento are both killed by Raynare in Volume 1.
    • Akeno's mother Shuri Himejima dies at the hands of her own relatives.
    • Cleria Belial dies because she knew too much about the King piece.
  • Death by Racism: Being a pure-blooded vampire, Marius frequently ridiculed Gasper and Valerie for being Dhampirs. It comes back to haunt him when Gasper's One-Winged Angel form eats him alive.
  • Death is Cheap: Evil Pieces can bring people Back from the Dead. Otherwise the series probably would've ended right away.
  • Declaration of Protection:
    • Subverted with Asia in episode 3. Issei does try to protect her, but he's nowhere near strong enough to fight Freed, and only manages to land one lucky punch. Issei even suspected he was outmatched, and were it not for the timely arrival of Rias, he probably would've died there.
    • Played straight in Volume 6, where both Issei and Xenovia swear that if Diodora ever comes near Asia again, they will kill him.
  • Defeat by Modesty: Issei's Dress Break invokes this, sure its mainly used on females but usually it's not modesty that defeats them, it's the heavy-handed blasting coming from Issei or one of his teammates as person in question covers their naughty bits.
  • Deus ex Machina: Twice in the series, with the Chichigami/Breast God helping Issei defeat Loki at the end of Volume 7, and then Issei's resurrection by the hands of Great Red and Ophis in Volume 12. The latter is linked to the Diabolus ex Machina described right below.
  • Diabolus ex Machina: Issei gets struck by it real hard in Volume 11: he successfully defeated Sairaorg and became the new strongest Young Devil, he got promoted to Middle-Class status, and his harem helped him overcome his emotional baggage. And then he dies from Samael's curse.
  • Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?:
    • Odin pays a visit to Issei's house and was hanging out with Azazel.
    • Ophis also visits Issei's house in volume 11 and eventually becomes their mascot in the next volume.
  • Dirty Mind-Reading: Issei's Bilingual fails on Sairaorg's bishop because she's willing to strip for Issei and her breasts just say which clothing she's taking off.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: In episode 2, Rias attempts a demonstration of Issei's powers, and tells him to raise his left hand and concentrate. Unfortunately, she's sitting right in front of him, and higher up, so he's able to see up her skirt, and can't concentrate properly. He even points it out in his thoughts.
  • The Dividual: Rias and Akeno show certain aspects of this. As from narrative point is clear, they are intended to be the indivisible combo. And even within the story, they are slowly becoming more and more equal as time goes. Not mention that on many official arts are always together.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?:
    • Issei's Boosted Gear has the ability to double the power of the user every ten seconds at the cost of putting strain on the user. Oh the effects can also be stacked. It may remind some people of the Kaio-ken which boosts the users power, speed, defense, ki, etc. The only change produced by the basic Kaio-ken to be quantified in the series is that it doubles the user's power level. The Kaio-ken is also quite taxing on the user's body.
    • The Khaos Brigade's terrorist attacks are eerily similar to those used by the real-life Al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) terrorist organizations.
  • Downer Ending: This is how the past Boosted Gear users' lives ended according to a lot of people, foremost being Ddraig. Issei has a close brush with this trope in volume 11 but revives with some help from Ddraig, Great Red, and Ophis.
  • Dragon Ancestry: Issei Hyoudo will have multiple children by his haremettes. Each of them will be part dragon from their father's side while the other half would be an assortment of vampire, devil, fallen angel and Valkyrie depending on who was their mother.
  • Dragons Are Divine: Dragons are shown to be very powerful beings that could rival those of Heaven, Hell, and other Gods in mythology. In fact, the battle between Ddraig and Albion cause the death of God and Devil when the army of Heaven, Hell and Fallen Angels battled them. And in the future, Issei himself becomes a powerful dragon that could wipe out a platoon of low level Gods. He's also a major celebrity in the Underworld.
  • Dub-Induced Plot Hole: Hoo boy, BorN has a doozy. In seasons one and two, the translators apparently mistook Issei calling Rias "buchou" (fan-translated as "Prez" in most places, including this very page) as a purely cultural thing and had him use her name normally... except it's not, it's a symptom of Token Motivational Nemesis Raynare having scarred Issei way deeper than anyone thought, and Rias definitely noticed the pattern. Come Season 3, a plot-critical character arc's handling make its end result uncertain due to the Alternate Continuity.
    • Interestingly, the Funimation ADR (dub) scripts were written by Rias' American voice actress Jamie Marchi, although it's not clear if she did the translation or did the arrangement (or both; she has said that she enjoys giving characters "more personality"). A large part of the (modern) ADR process for anime involves making sure that the show does not turn into a ridiculous-looking (and/or distracting) Hong Kong Dub, which requires synchronizing the translated dialogue with the characters' Mouth Flaps. Direct 1:1 translations for anime are tricky at best, due to the fact that translated dialogue rarely has the same number of syllables as the original (and that's not even going into purely cultural concepts that just plain cannot be translated in simple terms); "buchou" and "Rias" are each two syllables, while "Prez" is one and "President" is three. Regardless, the plot hole is easily fixable, especially since BorN uses a Reset Button Ending and Hero retcons the previous season altogether with a Recap Episode. When it comes time for "Buchou is Buchou"/"That's the first time you've ever said my name," it could easily be transformed into "You're my master"/"You've never said my name like that," or something similar. More importantly, while the use of her name may raise eyebrows among people familiar with the light novels or the untranslated cartoon, it is a plot point, not a subplot in and of itself. The subplot is Rias being unable to tell Issei's true feelings, and the anime laid the groundwork for that (both in Japanese and the dub, although with different dialogue) before BorN.

    Tropes E to N 
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Sona Sitri makes a brief speaking appearance in the first episode of the anime. In the light novels she was not introduced until volume 3.
  • Emergency Transformation: When Raynare kills Issei and Asia, Rias ends up transforming them both into devils.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Issei. He has a Sacred Gear but it's noted that he achieved his level of power not because of his sacred gear but because of Training from Hell and his will to never give up. Otherwise he would be far weaker.
  • End of an Age:
    • In quite a few ways for the anime, as BorN is the last season with Tetsuya Yanagisawa as director, the last season to feature Takao Yoshioka as a scriptwriter, the last to feature Junji Goto's character designs, and the last with TNK as its animation studio.
    • The death of Rizevim Livan Lucifer signifies the dissolution of the Khaos Brigade and the end of the Old Satan Faction.
    • After Rias Gremory and Akeno Himejima's graduation, Yuto Kiba and Asia Argento becoming the next president and vice-president seem to solidify the end of an era for the Rias-led Occult Research Club.
    • The aftermath of Trihexa's rampage results in this. In order to reseal Trihexa and ensure that it will be defeated for good, most of the leaders of the various factions sealed themselves with Trihexa. Also, the entire rampage in the human world was recorded by the media, and what's left of the various factions can only do so much to cover up what really happened. And to top things off, Rizevim and the Evil Dragons managed to make contact with another dimension and sent over information on teleportation techniques, and with nobody to keep Indra in check, interdimensional war is a huge possibility in 30 years.
  • Enemy Mine:
    • Xenovia has no issues siding with the devils in Rias's group in order to take out the Fallen Angels who have stolen some holy swords. The latter are helping partly because they're fighting a common enemy, but also because of Kiba's obsession with destroying holy swords, due to his Dark and Troubled Past where he was forced to take part in experiments to be able to wield them, only to then watch the other kids get killed when they were no longer useful in the experiment. As a result, the others decide they want to help him, since the end result was still getting rid of the holy swords. Fortunately, Xenovia makes a Heel–Face Turn after learning that God Is Dead despite her ironic exile from the church, even having Rias transform her into a devil.
    • Played for Laughs during Issei's first fight with Irina. He attempts to use his Dress Break move on her, but Koneko warns the girl what said ability is used for. Consequently, Irina dodges his attempts to touch her. When he complains about Koneko helping their enemy, she simply states that he is an enemy to all women.
    • Issei's boost gear, Ddraig, tells him about the three-way war between heaven, hell, and the fallen angels during episode 8 in season 2. He mentions that for the most part, the dragons stayed out of the conflict, but two of them, himself and Albion, joined the fray. They raised such a ruckus that all three sides stopped fighting temporarily to stop the two dragons. In the end, the two dragons were chopped up, and their souls sealed in the boost gear that their respective humans have. And because of the nature of their being, they're always destined to fight each other should they meet.
  • Everyone Can See It: It is so painfully obvious that Rias likes Issei that her father even acknowledges him as his future son-in-law, much to her embarrassment. The same thing applies for Akeno later on, and any savvy reader can notice Asia's liking of Issei from the first chapters after she's introduced.
  • Evil Counterpart: Vali Lucifer and Albion are evil counterparts to Issei and Ddraig.
  • Exit, Pursued by a Bear: At the end of Volume 20, Rizevim gets eaten alive by Fafnir.
  • Expanded Universe: The High School D×D Universe encompasses the light novels and the anime adaptation, as well as the new SLASH DØG novels.
  • Fanservice: The series contains gratuitous and shameless fan service, such as nudity. Appropriately enough, the anime adaptation earned an R15+ rating in Japan for it.
  • Fanservice Car Wash: Heros ED features all the girls washing a car while wearing bikinis.
  • Fantastic Arousal: The girls let off a very suggestive moan whenever Issei transfers his power over to them.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Humans, devils, fallen angels, angels, vampires, Norse mythology, Greek mythology, Hindu mythology, dragons, a breast god, anything you can think of, it's in here.
  • Femme Fatale: Yuuma Amano lures Issei into a trap with her sex appeal at the beginning of the series.
  • Finger Poke of Doom: Issei's Dress Break strips anyone of their clothes with a Badass Finger Snap. Just ask Riser's peerage.
  • First-Episode Resurrection: In volume 1, Issei and Asia are killed but are revived and transformed into devils.
  • First Kiss: Rias steals Issei's first kiss and later on, Asia and Akeno's first kisses are also from Issei. Although it is later revealed that Issei's first kiss was with Irina when they were still children.
  • Foregone Conclusion: The release of EX, set 30 years in the future, midway through the original series indicates that Issei will marry and have children with his haremettes.
  • Foreign Fanservice: Slightly over a minute into the series the presence of overseas students is stated to be one of the great things about the school. When Rias is introduced, it's mentioned that she is rumoured to be Scandinavian and after the Bedmate Reveal in volume 1, Miki specifically tells Gorou her son's in bed with a foreign girl.
  • Foreshadowing: In the anime, at least. Blink and you'll miss it, but after getting Boosted Gear to work the first time, Issei deflects a bolt of Holy Lightning with it. Guess what plays a crucial role in beating Riser?
  • Formula with a Twist: The series blends the conventions of a Shōnen action fantasy involving Demons vs Devils vs Angels with that of a Harem Genre, with the main character determined to be come a "Harem King". The "harem ending" thus becomes a Foregone Conclusion, as (aside from the Fanservice), it's the entire draw of the series.
  • Fountain of Youth: One short story has Rias and Asia turned into children, with their memories sealed and their behavior and intelligence scaled down appropriately. The Club manages to reverse the effects by the end, only for Issei (who the two had been trying to de-age in the first place when Rias's spell backfired) to suffer this when Gasper unintentionally pushes him into the magic circle. His mind isn't altered, but the Club decides that restoring him isn't a priority.
  • Friend-or-Idol Decision: During a break from their sparring, Azazel asks Kiba between Issei and Rias, who would he save. Kiba then flat out tells him that he'll save Rias because without her, everything is lost.
  • "Friends" Rent Control: Rias has Issei's house rebuilt into a six-storey, three-basement estate. Even if the neighbors were hypnotized into not noticing the overnight renovations, the ramifications of violating roughly all the zoning laws and the colossal jump in property value and rates are never mentioned.
  • Friend to All Children: When Issei gets involved with the Grabbin' Dragon TV series, he gains a fan club consisting of children.
  • From Bad to Worse: In volume 6, Diodora shows up and sends letters to Asia. Then, the Khaos Brigade attacks the Underworld and Diodora kidnaps Asia. Then, Shalba kills Diodora and sends Asia to the Dimensional Gap, leading Issei to the only conclusion he knows.
  • Funbag Airbag: In Season 3, while the group travel to the Underworld on a train, Akeno falls on top of Issei due to the emergency stop.
  • Gag Dub: The dub adds ample slang and "guy talk" straight out of a Judd Apatow movie (albeit with only maybe 25% of the swearing). When Kiba comes to fetch sex-crazed Issei, the girls in the class object on the basis that Issei will corrupt and ruin the popular, pleasant Kiba. Issei dismisses this with "Settle down, will you? I promise not to steal his pimp juice." One gets the feeling that since most US networks wouldn't air an ecchi series if their lives depended on it, the English dubbers figured "We're going to get an R rating anyway, might as well throw in some swearing!"
    • And not only that, Season 4 tossed in some lines that wouldn't be out of place in an Abridged Series, such as "Now I'm gonna to make you eat those feelings like a teen doing the Tide Pod challenge!"
  • Genre Savvy: Nearly everyone is at least at some level of this. It's to the point where Azazel and the Maous outline the motivations of the Hero Faction in video game terms.
  • George Lucas Altered Version: The DVD and Blu-ray release of NEW added several changes to the episodes that weren't aired on TV.
  • Glory Days: The Old Satan Faction is rooted in the recreation of the pre-Great War Four Great Satans.
  • God and Satan Are Both Jerks: Inverted. Most Devils are represented in a positive light, as are the Angels and most Fallen Angels, which is closer to the original depictions of devils in some sources (where they are primarily a trickster figure who tempts humans to do their bidding rather than outright omnicidal, maliciously evil. The devil jobs that Issei and co. do reflect this).
  • God Before Dogma: Even though the main characters are Devils, the theme is still very prominent throughout the series. As Michael himself explains, if an action would be considered immoral if performed against you, it's also immoral when performed against a Devil.
  • God Is Dead: Michael's the one running the place in Heaven and not God, that's why Asia can heal devils, and Kiba can dual wield a holy sword and a demon sword. The reason he died is because he pulled off a Dying Moment of Awesome by sealing a being on par with Great Red and Ophis.
  • God-Karting with Beelzebub: While the devils, angels, and fallen angels are all technically enemies, most of them have no qualms interacting on friendly terms. The Archangel Michael is shown to be exceptionally respectful to members of the other classes, even giving Issei the special Holy Sword, Ascalon, to help him beat the White Dragon Emperor. This gets further played afterthe three races unite under a peace treaty. They might as well not even be of different classes post that happening.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: When Hell gets invaded by Hades and the Khaos Brigade, the leaders try to convince the other members of The Alliance to help them. While they would, seeing as there's someone who wields the most powerful Longinus that could kill them, it made things harder for them to move. They then send their armies instead to deal with the threat.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Sirzechs originally championed the Grabbin' Dragon series to bring a source of hope and inspiration to the children of the Underworld. The fact that his son prefers the Grabbin' Dragon to Satan Red, i.e. Issei over his own father, depresses him greatly.
  • Good Is Not Soft: We are shown that the Occult Research Club and the Four Great Satans are not against the use of deadly force directly or indirectly on the various mooks and/or villains they encounter.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: Issei and Sairaorg fight each other using only their hands.
  • Grand Finale: BorN and the OVA episode, "The Unresurrected Phoenix", serve as the grand finale for TNK's anime adaptation.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Issei when he's first seen by his two guy friends with Yuuma, and later with Rias. The girls also have this look when Yuto arrives to pick him up for Rias.
  • Guilty Pleasure: In-universe example, Issei has gone...somewhat far with some of the girls, to the point it's just short of sex.
  • Handshake Substitute: Issei and Kiba do the fist bump variation just before they go to their separate positions in their first Rating Game.
  • Happy Ending Override: At the end of the first story arc, Asia is transformed into a devil, Raynare is killed, Issei nullifies Riser's engagement to Rias and peace has been restored. By the beginning of the second arc, however, it turns out Kokabiel is searching for Excalibur and is planning to start another great war between devils, angels and fallen angels.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted. Issei is mentioned constantly to be talentless and no good at anything at all. He goes through Training from Hell constantly to improve himself and in the end it worked. He turned out to be the strongest out of the Occult Club which consisted of some of the most talented individuals and some of them even had special lineages such as the the sister of the current Satan and the daughter of a leader of the Fallen Angel faction. He even eventually matched up to Vali who had the lineage of the original Satan to back himself up. The author himself mentioned that this is a series where hard work pays off and it shows. Azazel even thinks of Issei as a sponge who can absorb anything. Same thing with Sairaorg who also subverts this trope because any devil who fights off against him and loses, they don't have what it takes to bounce back since their powers don't work on someone who's just using his body as a weapon.
  • Harem Genre: The girls of the Occult Research Club eventually all become part of Issei's harem, but they aren't initially.
    • Volume 1 starts with just Rias and Asia being the two opposing love interests.
    • Volume 3 has Akeno start to develop feelings for Issei.
    • Volume 4 has Xenovia develop a crush on Issei.
    • Volume 5 has Koneko develop feelings for Issei after he saves her from Kuroka.
  • Harem Seeker: Issei's dream has always been to have his own harem, and he aims to be the "Harem King" upon getting his own peerage.
  • Harmful Healing: Issei's most recent power up, Diabolos Dragon causes him to become almost allergic to breasts; something that normally heals him. It's so bad, that he's incapable of saying the word, seeing them in life, and just holding an erotic magazine causes him seizures.
  • Harmless Electrocution: Issei. Whenever he gets zapped by Rassei, Asia's pet, he gets the comically electrocuted treatment, he's left with no lasting damage and is usually fine in the next scene.
  • Hearing Voices: Special Sacred Gears usually have something sealed within them. Issei's has a red Welsh Dragon named Ddraig.
  • Healing Factor: This is the reason monsters such as Jabberwocky and Trihexa are so dangerous and difficult to deal with. They regenerate so quickly that, unless they're destroyed completely in a single blow, they just get up and attack again like nothing happened. Trihexa takes it even further. When Issei and Sirzechs are fighting an exposed core, even the power of destruction that had Hades going Bring Me My Brown Pants, fails to destroy it, as it grew back From a Single Cell in mere seconds, and Issei's new ability, an inextinguishable flame that burns until the living being struck with it has been completely obliterated is nothing more than a nuisance, as the core regenerates faster than the flame can burn it.
  • A Hell of a Time: With most Devils being a bunch of good folk, it really isn't a big surprise.
  • Heroes Act, Villains Hinder: After creating The Alliance between the angels, fallen angels, and demons, the Khaos Brigade started on terrorizing them because the three factions hate peace and/or are threatened by said peace by the three factions.
  • Heroes Gone Fishing:
    • After Shalba's wiped out by Issei's Juggernaut Drive in Volume 6, Issei and Asia participate in the three-legged race.
    • Once Issei foils Cao Cao's plot to summon Great Red, he and his friends return to Kuoh Academy and fight Sairaorg in their Rating Game.
  • Heroic BSoD:
    • By the end of volume 1, Issei goes into one after he was fatally wounded by Raynare. He manages to keep going, but it's clear from that point onwards that he hasn't gotten over what happened with Raynare. Well, until Asia, Akeno and Koneko realize Issei's true feelings in Volume 10 at least...
    • Akeno also goes through this in her backstory when she was forced to watch Shuri Himejima get murdered by her own relatives and hit the Despair Event Horizon after she disowned Baraqiel, her father.
    • The Occult Research Club's ashen reactions after learning from Kokabiel that God Is Dead says it all.
    • Sona goes through a brief one after finding out that the Rating Games can be rigged easily.
    • Issei falls into one shortly after after Shalba Beelzebub sends Asia to the Dimensional Gap. Cue Issei's Curb-Stomp Battle with Shalba.
    • Rossweisse has a major one when Odin abandons her shortly after defeating Loki.
    • Rias herself goes through one when Issei's unable to confess his feelings for him in the sauna.
    • Played for Laughs with Ddraig whenever someone calls Issei Boob Dragon. It gets to the point that it actually makes him clinically depressed and he requires medication and psychological counseling. Exaggerated when he is crying hysterically for a counselor when Ophis curiously ask if he quit being the Red Dragon Emperor and became Boob Dragon instead.
    • Also Played for Laughs with Albion seeing as his main rival is now known as the Breast Dragon Emperor, which hurts his pride. Also gets called the Butt Dragon Emperor thanks to Vali revealing his fetish.
    • Elmenhilde goes into a state of catatonia after her homeland is destroyed by Rizevim.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: A non-fatal example, but most of the leaders of the various factions seal themselves to contain Trihexa.
  • Hoist by Their Own Petard:
    • Played for Laughs when Sirzechs asked his son which one he prefers: Satan Red or Breast Dragon. His son prefers the Breast Dragon. The hoist part? He was the one who pushed for that series in the first place.
    • Siegfried gets killed by Kiba after Gram answered to Kiba instead of him.
    • Cao Cao was so Crazy-Prepared that he neglected the fact that Samael's poison also works on snakes because of his Medusa eye. Yeah, that same Samael blood that Issei got coated with in his fight against Shalba.
  • Home Base: The Occult Research Club's main headquarters is the old schoolhouse at Kuoh Academy. Meanwhile, the female members of the club and Issei live in his residence, which also serves as the main base for the Three Factions after the end of volume 5.
  • Hood Ornament Hottie: The Occult Research Club does this while washing a car in the Season Four ending theme.
  • Hot as Hell: The main reason Issei is cool with becoming a demon is that Rias tells him he can use it to get laid.
  • How the Mighty Have Fallen: When they are first introduced in volume 4, the Khaos Brigade is one of the most powerful fighting forces. However, with the loss of the Old Satan Faction and the Hero Faction's treachery, the brigade is eventually reduced to a smaller-sized army by the time of volume 20.
  • How We Got Here: The series begins with Rias transforming Issei into a devil after the latter gets fatally wounded by Raynare. The first part of volume 1 is spent explaining how Issei got into that situation.
  • Humans Are Special: You need to have been born (at least partially) human to have a Sacred Gear.
  • Humongous Mecha: Azazel makes one from Sirzechs' request. He builds it underneath the swimming pool of the school named Maouga.
  • I Can Explain: Issei has to explain to his parents first why there is a naked red-headed girl sleeping in his bed, and later why another girl is coming to live in their home. As of the Season 1 finale, make that two girls.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Or in this work's case, "Idiosyncratic Volume Naming".
    • All the volume titles (save for the short story collections) are named after an event that may happen while in high school.
    • As for the chapters themselves, they are called "Lives".
  • I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: This is practically how Issei works.
  • Immortal Procreation Clause: Devils live for 10,000 years, but don't reproduce very quickly. This appears to be a similar issue for Angels and Fallen Angels, with the former group barely able to engage in intimacy at all without turning into the latter group. The low fertility rate became particularly problematic after the massive casualties from the Great War, which included the Biblical God and consequently, any increase in Pure Angel numbers. Devils and Angels have taken to reincarnating other races into their own with Evil Pieces and Brave Saints, respectively.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
    • The fate of Issei Hyoudou at the hands of Raynare (a Fallen Angel, no less) in Volume 1 before Rias revives him. Raynare's associate Dohnaseek runs him through with his spear before Rias rescues him and heals him.
    • Issei finally gets to dish out several simultaneously in the first Rating Game using "Gift" with Yuto's ability to summon a Field of Blades under a group of Riser's pieces.
    • By the end of volume 4, Azazel runs Katerea through with his own light spear after freeing himself as the cost of losing an arm.
    • In volume 6, Shalba Beelzebub uses a light spear to run Diodora through for failing to complete his mission.
  • In Medias Res: The Teaser of the first episode begins with Issei's death and resurrection by Rias.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Asia, definitely.
  • Instant Armor: Issei's Sacred Gear starts out as an Instant Gauntlet, but as it grows more powerful, it gradually expands to cover most of his arm. Then, after he sacrifices his arm to Ddraig for a short-term power boost, his left arm becomes the gauntlet, and he has to use magic to keep it normal. Later on, he becomes able to summon a fully-covering suit of magical armor to go with it. And Vali - the White Dragon Emperor - can use his version of this power pretty much from the start, and does so with abandon.
  • Insult Backfire: When Issei tells his friends that he'll have to cancel his summer plans with them because he's going somewhere with the Occult Research Club, his friends tell him to "go to hell!" But he proves that insult "correct" when Hell is exactly where they're spending their summer vacation, since the club primarily consists of devils.
  • Interservice Rivalry: After becoming The Alliance, the Judeo-Christian faction play a version of this. The Devils being analogous to the Army, the Angels as the Navy, and the Fallen Angels as the Air Force. Then there's the Human side, the Sacred Gear possessors and the hybrids, as the Marines.
  • Intimate Lotion Application:
  • It Began with a Twist of Fate: The moment when Issei accepted Raynare's offer to be his girlfriend.
  • It's All My Fault: Azazel blames himself for unintentionally causing Akeno and Baraqiel's extrangement. Later, it's revealed that Azazel was directly responsible for it by dispatching Baraqiel on a mission and leaving Shuri to be killed by Akeno's relatives.
  • I Was Just Passing Through: Vali invokes this from time to time. Sometimes however, he really does have an agenda.
  • Jaw Drop:
    • Tannin pulls off a funny one when Issei accidentally summons a Breast Fairy and asks the former as to which mythology is it a part of.
    • Both Issei and Rias do this in response to the Four Satan Rangers.
  • Jumped at the Call: More like sprinted towards the call but Issei definitely fits.
  • Just Desserts: At the end of volume 20, Fafnir drags Rizevim to his fiery death.
  • Karmic Death: Rizevim spent his life underestimating dragons and it comes back to haunt him when Issei combines the power of two legendary dragons to curb-stomp him and Vali, his own grandson whom he abused as a child, cuts off his arm. Then, Rizevim is snapped up by Fafnir, one of the Dragon Kings, and Eaten Alive.
  • Karmic Jackpot: Thanks to Azazel signing a peace treaty between the Three Factions, the Fallen Angels become allies with the Devils.
  • Kiai: Koneko uses them, subverted since she's not Hot-Blooded at all; rather than screaming, it's a quiet "eh!", and then whatever she just punched goes flying
  • Knight Templar: Quite a few with the most notable being the Old Satan Faction and the Hero Faction, both absolutely convinced they're in the right and willing to do anything to get what they want.
  • Lap Pillow: He gets it from 3 people, Rias in Volume 2 to unseal his powers and early on in Volume 3 from Asia. Akeno joins in on volume 4.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia:
    • Rias tells Issei in volume 1 that fallen angels and devils can selectively erase themselves from human memories, such as Yuuma with Issei's two guy friends, and later Rias with Issei's parents after his mom catches them in his room naked.
    • At the conclusion of their battle with Issei's clone in BorN, Rias and Issei's memories of that battle and her corruption are erased when they return to the real world.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler:
    • Asia being killed by Raynare, and thereafter resurrected as a devil is a major spoiler for the first arc of the series, and only occurs at the end of Volume 1 (or Episode 5 in the anime). It is almost impossible to talk about the series without spoiling this fact somewhat, although it is possible to downplay it so the scene still comes as a surprise.
    • The fact that God Is Dead is a major twist in the second season/third volume, but provides much of the lore of the series, and is often spoiled.
  • Leg Focus: Alongside all the breasts of various sizes flopping about, another significant form of fanservice in the story is the long and slender legs on most of the females, with most of the cast having ridiculously small skirts for the express purpose of showing them off. This is especially prominent with the "horizontally" challenged girls, who make up for what they lack up top by frequently showing off their impressive gams, often by having a Kick Chick fighting style.
  • Leotard of Power: Xenovia and Rossweisse both wear black leotards into battle. Rossweisse's has a wide skirt-thing on the back, Xenovia's does not.
  • Light Is Not Good: Fallen angels can still use the power of light, and they're in hell fighting with the devils.
  • Like Brother and Sister: Issei and Asia, to the point that the former, while relishing any opportunity to ogle her (developing) breasts, generally tries to dissuade her from intimacy (partly because she often doesn't understand what she's doing).
  • Little "No": Ravel upon realizing just why Issei's Evil Pieces were summoned back from the dimensional gap instead of Issei himself.
  • Long-Lived: Devils have an average lifespan of 10,000 years, and most other supernatural beings appear to live just as long.
  • Loophole Abuse: In the rating game against Riser, Rias's team does fairly well against his despite having fewer pieces/characters. Then when Issei reaches Riser, he refuses to stay down despite receiving a Curb-Stomp Battle from the latter and barely having the energy to stand. Riser then mentions that he wants to kill Issei, and that if he should happen to die during a rating game, it would be seen as an accident, rather than murder. Rias is also aware of this, and surrenders herself in order to save Issei.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Issei and his non-demonic pals, Matsuda and Motohama.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Or in this case, "Love Makes You Turn Into a Fallen Angel." Azazel explains that the first fallen angels became so was because they made out with a human being. Irina almost gets turned into a fallen angel twice. Then volume 19 reveals that they were many other offscreen moments where Irina was in danger of falling.
  • Lover Tug of War: Early in Season 2, Rias and Asia subject Issei to this wearing nothing but panties and socks.
    • A mild example in the opening credits of Akeno vs. Asia with Issei as the prize.
  • Lucky Charms Title: If you want to be totally accurate, it should be "D×D".
  • Magikarp Power: Pawns can promote into any piece except a King as long as they are in the enemy territory.
  • Marry Them All: EX states that Issei marries Rias, Akeno, Asia, Xenovia, Irina, Rossweise, Ingvild, Le Fay, Kuroka, and Koneko and has at least a child for each one of them.
  • Marshmallow Hell: Actually Marshmallow Heaven for Issei. Issei is very, very much a boobs man. While never exactly innocent, the reasons for it run the gamut from fluffy (it's just how Rias hugs him; she's tall, affectionate, and has romantic feelings that lead her to indulge him a bit) to sultry (Akeno has designs to be The Mistress and gets a kick out of anything scandalous).
    • In the Season 2 OVA a pervy monster strips the girls and, manipulating their bras, makes them surround Issei to stop his attack. Issei manages to No-Sell the strip attack by catching the girls and (this being Issei) pulling them towards him and Marshmallowing himself. This manages to piss off the monster so much (because of course it's jealous) it decides to absorb the girls instead.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Issei's last name Hyoudou means "regular soldier" in Japanese, given his initial status as a pawn.
    • Rias's last name is one of the 72 Pillars of the Ars Goetia, and is said to show herself as an attractive woman. Her Pawn is a Fairy Chess Piece that can also move sideways. It was proposed as a way to "shake up" the rules of chess, as Issei does for the Rating Game. This part is later double subverted, as Ishibumi revealed that being the Pokémon nerd that he is, named her after Garchompnote , who just so happens to be a Dragon type (which is weak against Fairy types).
    • Asia's surname is Italian for "silver", as in silver crosses. She wears one in her introductory arc before being revived as a devil.
    • Akeno Himejima's last name means "Island Princess" and is also the name of a place in Japan.
    • Kiba's name is the Japanese word for "Horse Rider", given that knights in chess are represented by horses.
    • Koneko is a good name for a Cat Girl as it is Japanese for "kitten" (more literally "child cat"), while her surname Toujou means "castle", befitting her position as Rook. Her real name, Shirone, means "White Sound", in reference to her hair and tail color.
    • Xenovia's last name, Quarta, means "fourth" in Italian, Catalan, Latin, and Portuguese. Xenovia becomes the fourth girl to join the ORC after Asia.
    • Irina Shido's first name is a variant of Irene, being a Cyrillic-transliterated Christian Orthodox feminine given name of Greek origin that is used in Eastern Europe. Irina is a devout Christian.
    • Karnstein is the name of the vampire countess featured in the novella of the same name, the prototype for Lesbian Vampire (which explains why the Carmilla faction are very matriarchal. It is speculated that Elmenhilde's progenitor is no other than the countess Mircalla Karnstein, aka Elizabeth Bathory herself, similar to Vlad Tepes to Tepes faction). In a meta-sense, the Carmilla novella actually predated Dracula by about twenty six years, reflecting her inferiority view towards the Tepes faction vampires.
    • Vasco is a Portuguese name derived from the medieval Iberian name Velasco. Strada is the Italian word for "street".
    • Ewald is a Germanic name which is made up of the words ewa ("law or custom") and wald ("rule"). Cristialdi is an Italian name possibly based off of the Sicilian word cristaudu, which means "Crystal".
    • Teodoro Legrenzi's first name is the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese form of the male name Theodore.
  • Mêlée à Trois: There are three different powers currently in this setting: God and his angels, the fallen angels, and the devils.
  • Mellow Fellow: The Archangel Michael. Even when he's waging in battle, he's still pretty calm.
  • Meido: Grayfia, head maid to Rias's Brother's household. Also she's his wife.
  • Mirroring Factions: The three classes of supernatural beings. This is especially made prominent when the angel, fallen angel, and devil leaders sit down to have a peace meeting. Archangel Michael makes it clear that he does not see the other races as inherently evil, nor does he believe all of his own race to be inherently pure, admitting that excommunicating Asia and Xenovia from the church for their fairly innocent actions was brash and wrong, even asking that they forgive him.
  • Modesty Towel:
  • Moment Killer: Tons in this series. If it's not Issei who says something idiotic or doesn't know what his partner is talking about, it'll either be someone else either spying on them (Irina, Xenovia) or calling them from a distance (Azazel, Odin).
  • Monster/Slayer Romance: One of Issei's, a reborn devil, haremette is Irina who works for the church to exterminate demons and who later became a reborn angel.
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • Pretty much how this series works. After discussing serious issues in volume 7, Azazel asks where Odin wants to go. He immediately declares that he wants to go to a breast club much to the consternation of the group.
    • A darker variation with episode 1 of BorN. It starts off with Issei having an erotic dream of the girls topless and telling him to have at them, and he's all-too-eager to start. Then Raynare appears to cruelly mock him and Issei ends up snapping awake on the verge of tears. And then it switches back to erotic mood returns when Akeno shows up in Issei's bed naked.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Rias and Akeno have massive breasts, are considered the 2 idols of school, and are incredibly beautiful Shameless Fanservice Girls.
    • Rias is willing to be naked in front of her servants, especially towards Issei. While Issei was freaking out and his mother seemed stunned, her response when she walked in on them naked in bed was a polite "good morning" without even trying to cover herself up.
    • About Akeno, Female Fallen Angels are renowned for having very seductive bodies and her naturally sexy disposition, plus having the largest breast size in the series so far, only enhances this fact. Azazel himself states that Akeno is seductive even for a Fallen Angel.
    • The other major girls in the Issei harem (as Asia and Xenovia) are hovering between to being a sort of Innocent Fanservice Girl who doesn't realize there's a problem with getting naked in a particular situation and a Shameless Fanservice Girl who fully comprehends what she's doing but does it anyway to achieve her goals.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: Issei's Dress Break debut in episode 10. Complete with Ominous Latin Chanting.
  • Mutual Kill: Shalba successfully completes his revenge on Issei by fatally wounding him. However, in Issei's dying moments, he ends up killing Shalba.
  • My Eyes Are Up Here: One side story involves Azazel's newest contraption stripping Issei of his perversion. Rias first realizes that something's wrong when Issei talks to her without looking at her breasts.
  • Naked Apron: Issei sees Asia wearing one during season 2. When he protests that his parents would be mad if they saw her like that, his mom pops out from the kitchen, stating she was the one that came up with the idea. Rias then decides to do the same as well.
    • The first special of Season 3 has Rias and Akeno compete for Issei's affections. Rias begins by acting and dressing like a sexy school teacher while Akeno plays the role of housewife wearing nothing but an apron.
  • Near-Villain Victory: In EX, Loki and the Underworld Lifeforms wreak utter havoc with the timeline to cause a Time Crash. They succeed in, among other things, developing the Alternate Continuity that the last four episodes of BorN take place in. Loki would have won if it wasn't for Issei's children time-traveling to the past and capturing Loki so they can undo a curse he has inflicted on Asia.
  • New Season, New Title: While Season 1 is titled High School D×D, subsequent seasons have additions to the titles: High School D×D NEW (Season 2), High School D×D BorN (Season 3) and High School D×D HERO (Season 4).
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Fafnir killing Rizevim brings the world into an unprecedented level of peril because of Rizevim's last-minute unsealing of Trihexa.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
    • Sairaorg concludes that Gasper's training with Grigori has brought his Forbidden Balor View to the point where he only needs an emotional push to hit his Balance Breaker. Georg ends up providing this push by taunting him about Issei's death.
    • 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, he kidnaps 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.
  • Nipple and Dimed: In the series, nipples are frequently shown, but not the genitals.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Asia heals Diodora Astaroth only to be excommunicated from the Church as part of the latter's plan.
  • Nom de Mom: When it comes to the future children Issei'll sire with his haremettes, only a couple of them took their father's surname. Most of them took their mothers' names.
  • Nothing Is the Same Anymore: In Volume 21, most of the faction leaders and their subordinates seal themselves with Trihexa to fight against it.
  • Not What It Looks Like:
    • Miki walks into his room as he desperately tries to get Rias to cover up. Understandably, she is shocked out of her mind and complains about the situation to Gorou.
    • Whenever Rias catches Issei and one of the girls in compromising positions, she gets rather annoyed.

    Tropes O to Z 
  • Oblivious to Love: Issei wants a harem, but doesn't notice the one he already has. Well, if it wasn't for Raynare who fucked him up in romance...
  • Official Couple: Averted, as Issei is officially engaged with Rias, Akeno (possibly; it's debatable, and Issei himself doesn't seem to know for sure), Xenovia, Irina, and Asia.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: We don't get to see it, but it can be reasonably inferred that absolute fury ensued when Baraqiel found his wife Shuri murdered, as he's looking down at the perpetrators' bodies with a light-sword in his hand and a Death Glare on his face.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Issei when he realizes how insane and dangerous Raynare really is before he's murdered.
    • Miki is understandably shocked when she first sees Issei together with a naked Rias in bed.
    • Raynare's mooks when they realize that taunting Rias's servants to her face is a bad idea.
    • Raynare has one when she is curb-stomped by Issei and later realizing Rias is about to kill her.
    • Kiba when Issei first fired his Dragon Shot on him when they were training. He made it. His wooden sword? Not so much.
    • In the finale of Volume 2, Riser is utterly shocked when Issei burns his face and when Issei is about to deliver the final blow. Ravel also shares this reaction when that happens.
    • Katerea has one when she is about to be Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by Azazel.
    • Kuroka has a moment of terror when her attacks No-Sell Issei's newly-attained (and perfected) Balance Breaker.
    • Irina is utterly shocked when she sees Issei groping both Xenovia and Asia.
    • Bikou whenever the original Son Wukong is mentioned. Given what we know about him when he made an appearance, Bikou may have a point.
    • In volume 6, Diodora has a moment of absolute horror when Issei defeats him and when Shalba is about to kill him for his failure. Shalba himself gets one when Issei decides he's finally had enough and activates Juggernaut Drive.
    • Loki after feeling the power of the blessings of the Breast God, which also unlocks the full abilities of the Mjölnir replica.
    • Issei is mortified to discover Kunou attacking him when he first visits Kyoto.
    • When battling with Rossweisse outside of the girls' locker room in Kyoto, Rossweisse gets utterly shocked when Issei unwittingly brings up her lack of boyfriend, which is her Berserk Button. Then, she gets a Delayed "Oh, Crap!" after being subjected to his Dress Break.
    • Cao Cao gets mortified after seeing Rias get summoned instead of Great Red. Siegfried freaks out when realizing that Rias' breasts are the breasts of miracles if combined with Issei's powers. Heracles has a moment of terror as soon as he finds out that Sairaorg didn't even have a scratch when he used his Sacred Gear at full power.
    • A comedic example in Volume 10 when Odin encounters Rossweisse, who is royally pissed off at him for abandoning her after the fight with Loki, and only further enraged upon seeing that he'd replaced her with another Valkyrie.
    • Azazel when he realizes he's getting ganged up by the group for starting the mess of the Issei clones. A more serious one happens when he finds out that Rizevim is now the leader of the Khaos Brigade's remnants.
    • Georg is horrified as soon as he realizes that taunting Gasper that Issei died in vain wasn't really a good idea.
    • Ruma Ydura when he finds out that future Issei has ripped off Rezwo Roado's arm.
    • Marius realizes his fate the moment Gasper transforms into his Balor form.
    • Elmenhilde has a moment of terror after Rizevim launches an assault on her homeland.
    • Rizevim gets one in volume 20 when he's defeated by Issei and Vali. Then he has another one after realizing that he's about to be Eaten Alive by Fafnir.
    • Vali when he realizes that Rizevim has put up a back-up plan to unseal Trihexa.
  • Older Than They Look: Subverted with Rias. She sometimes refers to Issei as a child in the novel and she is actually old as she looks.
  • Old School Building: Where the Occult Research Club is located.
  • One-Hit Kill: The Bael Clan's Power of Destruction technique can vaporize anyone and anything in its path. Thanks to Venelana Bael marrying Zeoticus Gremory, the technique gets passed down to the Gremory Clan.
  • One-Man Army: Any of the leaders of the factions, Issei plus his rivals, and the Gods.
  • Our Demons Are Different: Demons and fallen angels are two separate classes of beings: demons are the original inhabitants of hell, whereas fallen angels are interlopers who settled there after getting kicked out of heaven. The two groups have been at war ever since.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: Unusual for a media franchise, both Western and Eastern dragons appear in the series. The majority of the dragons, including Issei's Welsh Dragon, are Western ones.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Pure-blooded vampires have every common trait: They need to be invited before entering buildings, no reflection or shadow, sustain themselves entirely on blood, and are averse to running water, garlic, daylight, and church symbols. Their powers include transformation, hypnotism, and turning their victims into vampires (who face discrimination for not being naturally born). Dhampirs like Gasper keep most of the powers while migitating most of the weaknesses.
  • Our Wyverns Are Different:
    • Wyvern-like spirits are summoned as part of Issei's "Dividing Wyvern Fairy" technique, and wield the shard of the white dragon Albion's power. Issei later learns how to have the wyverns switch between white and red forms, and to combine into a duplicate of his armor which can be worn by his allies.
    • In volume 21, it's revealed that Albion was once a poisonous dragon named Gwiber (a Welsh word cognate with "wyvern"), but became disgusted by his abilities and sealed them away. When he comes to accept his old name he unlocks the original version of Dividing Wyvern Fairy, equipped with a poison which can kill even gods.
  • Pals with Jesus: Well, maybe not Jesus specifically, but Issei along with the other main devils are on pretty good terms with most of the holy faction, with Michael even creating a Pocket Dimension that Issei and another angel, Irina, can get their freak on in without Irina losing her angel status. Sadly, due to Executive Meddling, Issei is going to have to wait a while to finally make good on that opportunity.
  • Papa Wolf:
    • Issei is a friendly person, but doesn't hesitate to attack someone who's threatening his friends, harem or his allies.
    • Baraqiel, despite his initially tense relationship with Akeno, might just kill you if you threaten his daughter. Just ask Loki.
  • Parents Suck at Matchmaking: After Issei wins his engagement challenge with Riser in volume 2, Rias's father Zeoticus realizes his mistake in not letting his daughter choose her fiancé. Rias's mother Venelana even admits her husband's mistake after she meets Issei for the first time.
  • Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Death: When the evening sky turns dark purple in volume 1 due to Raynare revealing herself as a Fallen Angel, it's obvious something really bad is about to happen to Issei Hyoudou.
  • Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: Each of the anime's season finales end with a chalked drawing of the final scene:
    • The first season has Rias smiling as she looks out at Issei and his friends from the clubhouse's window.
    • In the finale of NEW, Rias, Asia and Akeno are clinging on to Rias while the other Occult Research Club members look on.
    • At the end of BorN, Rias smiles from the clubhouse's window once again, this time with Issei accompanied by the Occult Research Club members.
  • Peace Conference: Happens in the fourth volume. It was successful; however, there is a certain faction that doesn't want in, and that's the Khaos Brigade.
  • The Peeping Tom: The first scene in the novels involves Issei and his friends Matsuda and Motohama peeking at the girls' locker room.
  • Perpetual Molt: In the anime, fallen angels tend to release a shower of black feathers when they whip their wings out.
  • Physical God: Gods in this series are extremely strong. Loki, for example, could hold off the two strongest members of the Fallen Angel group plus the entire Occult Club plus Saji in his dragon from with ease. Also Son Wukong has been shown to utterly crush the Hero Faction which are each individually at a High Ultimate-Tier Devil level. The two strongest beings, Ophis and Great Red, are represented by Infinite and Dreams which say volumes of how strong they are.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Koneko's the physically strongest member of Rias' peerage, and she's a tiny little girl.
  • Playing Card Motifs: The angelic bureaucracy has this going on as a counterpart to the Devils' Evil Pieces, as evidenced by Irina being assigned as the Ace of Spades, with the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel designated to the suits of Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds, respectively.
  • Please, I Will Do Anything!: When his faction is destroyed and he is at Gasper's mercy, Marius promises to do anything Gasper says; however, he gets eaten alive.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: Issei's death at the beginning of Volume 1 kickstarts the plot.
  • Polyamory: Could be called "Polyamory The Anime", at least during the Slice of Life segments. All of the girls love Issei, are aware of each others' feelings, and not only does this not bother them, but in many cases they'll support each other in their attempts to get closer to him.
  • Powered Armor: Yes, it actually does exist in the series; Issei and Vali's Balance Breakers are basically it.
  • Power is Sexy: According to Ddraig, anybody who possesses the power of dragons instantly becomes a Chick Magnet because of this trope. He even describes to Issei that one of his past users slept with a lot of women.
  • Power Levels:
    • Vali invokes this to Issei that the latter is ranked somewhere in the 4 digits and that Sirzechs won't enter the top 10.
      • According to Ishibumi, this is who Vali meant when he referred to the top 10. Disregarding Great Red, we have (in no particular order): Ophis (before her Nerf), Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Śakra, Thor, Typhon (or Fenrir and this is before its Nerf), Hades, Aten, and Lugh.
    • The devils also have a strength tier with ultimate being the highest level and low-level devils being the lowest. In a subversion, however, the entire Occult Club with the exception of Rias are all low-level devils and they are all considered with the exception of Asia and Gasper until his Curb-Stomp Battle with Georg to be high-level devils if not stronger. Ironically Rias herself ends up as one of the weaker members with most of the rest of the Occult Club surpassing her.
  • The Power of Hate: The Maouga runs on it as its power source.
  • The Power of Love:
    • Issei is powered by a combination of lust and genuine love/care for his friends. However, in a slightly surprising twist, him calling on the power of love is generally a horrific, bloody, and all around terrifying experience. Asia's apparent murder by Shalba triggered Juggernaut Drive, which nearly caused him to kill all his friends. Ravel's kidnapping meant he no longer cared what happened to Mooks in his way. His parents being taken nearly drove him insane with rage. In short, the Power of Love is invoked when the object of love is threatened, and used to ensure whatever threat existed ceases to do so immediately.
    • A hilarious combination of the trope both being played straight and combined with The Power of Hate comes in Volume 6, where Issei and Koneko make use of the intense rivalry between Rias and Akeno. Both girls are struggling with a trio of strong opponents, and Issei tells Akeno he'll take her out on a date if she wins. Akeno immediately gains a Heroic Second Wind, followed by a furious and jealous Rias gaining an even greater second wind, topped in short order by another one from Akeno, until both women are putting out peak power. Their main opponent angrily berates them for arguing over a man during their battle, and the two women angrily blast her away, demanding she stay out of it.
  • The Power of Lust: Issei Hyodo dreams of one day becoming the "Harem King." He's always been a pervert obsessed with breasts. Eventually, he dies and a beautiful devil named Rias resurrects him, turning him into a devil in order to make him her "Pawn." He then learns he possesses the power of a Dragon King. Though he can access this power without a problem, it is only after being motivated by the prospect of groping Rias's breasts that his full power and potential is unleashed.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Why else would Issei invent Dress Break during his training time?
  • Pretty Freeloaders: Asia is the first one who stays at Issei's home, then later on it's Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Xenovia, Irina, and Rossweisse who stay with him while Kiba and Gasper rent a house near them. Kuroka and Le Fay also get in on the action in the most recent novel.
  • Property of Love: As his master, Rias calls Issei her possession and says that he belongs to her only.
  • Pun: Upon seeing Serafall Leviathan, one of the Four Satans, Issei dubs her a "Maou Shoujo". note 
  • Radial Asskicking: The Occult Research Club was going to do this, until Odin showed up.
  • Rags to Riches: Issei's home gets renovated from a normal Japanese house to a six-floor mansion overnight.
  • Really Gets Around: Issei wants to, Riser already has, and finally Issei's mentor Azazel had 1000s (harems, not women).
    • In one of the light novels, Rias' mother implies that this is the default state for all male near-immortals, directly invoking Power is Sexy (although, interestingly, she states that Sirzechs does not do this specifically because of his position). The Immortal Procreation Clause is presumably also an influence. Akeno makes matter-of-fact references to "numbered" wives, stating that Rias will be "legal wife" and Asia will be "second," and she herself will be "third position," as if it's the most natural thing in the world, although Issei has no idea what she's talking about (and she claims that it does have a "feeling" of unfaithfulness). Issei having 10 kids in the future may seem like a lot to someone raised in a culture shaped by stable population growth, but considering that the devils periodically have to bolster their ranks with reincarnated humans, it really isn't.
  • Recap Episode: Since the anime-original episodes of BorN were made non-canon in 2015, Hero begins with a more faithful adaptation of the volume 6 finale.
  • Red Baron: A lot. Generally all the high-level fighters have some sort of terrifying nickname. Funnily enough, Issei is called the Breast Dragon Emperor which brings Ddraig no small amount of agony.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni:
    • Issei is perverted and easily-angered, while Vali is seen as calm and collected.
    • Rias and Akeno also follow this trope. Rias is a fire-willed redhead who'll go on a fit if anyone of her peers are hurt (especially if it's Issei), while Akeno - when in non-sadomasochist tease mode - is a bonafide Yamato Nadeshiko.
  • Relative Button:
    • Issei views Asia as his sister and his friend. As such, threatening or even attempting to kill Asia will set him off big time.
    • When Riser encounters the Occult Research Club once again before Rias's Rating Game with Sairaorg, he tells Issei that if he makes his sister Ravel cry, he will fry him.
  • Reset Button: In EX, Gasper tells Azazel that Ajuka is monitoring the various timelines in an attempt to figure out how to "converge" them and undo all of Loki's interference, which includes the BorN timeline, but EX ends before he succeeds.
  • Reset Button Ending: At the end of BorN, Rias and Issei's memories of the battle with the latter's clone are erased after they return to our world, and everyone goes back to their daily lives.
  • Retcon: The first episode of Hero retcons the last four episodes of BorN out of existence, given the latter series strayed further from the source material.
  • Ret-Gone: According to EX, Loki creating the different timelines causes some of the events like the Sitri-Gremory Rating Game to never happen in BorN.
  • R-Rated Opening: The prologue opens In Medias Res with Rias transforming Issei into a devil in his dying moments. Since the anime is an R15+ series, Issei lays in a pool of his own blood after Raynare kills him.
  • Running Gag: When Issei is sleeping in his bed, he often finds his harem either naked or wearing skimpy clothes.
  • School Sport Uniform: Used by the Occult Research club female members (for the joy of Issei) in the dodgeball match against the Student Council.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
    • In Volume 1, Freed's reaction to Raynare's defeat is to get the hell out of dodge.
    • Rizevim and Qlippoth jump ship after the Old Satan Faction's leaders are defeated to form Qlippoth.
  • Sealed Evil in a Duel: In Volume 21, most of the faction leaders and their subordinates use their powers to trap both themselves and Trihexa and fight it off.
  • Sentai: The Maou Sentai Satanranger, an informal group formed by the current Four Great Satans and Grayfia. The concept of this team is based on the Tokusatsu hero team, Super Sentai.
  • Sequel Hook: The mere mention of the Vanishing Dragon (Vali) at the conclusion of the anime made everyone jump for joy and want a second season. It happened.
  • Serial Escalation: How much can Issei power up using Rias's breasts!? How high of a "Holy Shit!" Quotient 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!? Yeah it's that kind of series.
  • Sexy Whatever Outfit: The girls typically in the opening/closing, if they're wearing anything at all, particularly the 2nd ending in season 2.
  • Shoot the Medic First: Azazel suggests that some of their enemies will target Asia, so he has her form a contract with Fafnir to protect her.
  • Shot in the Ass: Coriana Andrealphus ends up having her rear blasted by Issei's dragon shot.
  • Shout-Out: Has grown enough to warrant it's own page
  • Sick Episode: One of the short stories in volume 13 has Issei becoming sick after catching a flu for devils and dragons.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Despite having some cynical traits such as the Occult Research Club's members' Dark and Troubled Pasts, the series stays idealistic for the most part. After all, seeing Angels, Fallen Angels and Devils all getting along and willing to work together isn't something you see every day.
  • Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: The series slides across both ends of the scale, but stays silly for the most part.
  • Smug Super: Akeno seems to be always putting up a smile in battle.
  • Someday This Will Come in Handy: Back in volume 4, Sirzechs asks Issei what would happen if Issei used Gift on Rias's breasts then tells the latter not to worry about it, which obviously makes Issei think of a lot of crazy outcomes on what will happen. It mostly gets forgotten, until Volume 11 where the spirits of the past users of Boosted Gear bring it up again. It replenishes Issei's aura at the cost of Rias's breasts (temporarily) shrinking.
  • Spin-Offspring: This is what the EX spin-off is about, with the children of Rias, Akeno, Xenovia, Koneko, Irina, and Kuroka showing up.
  • Status Quo Is God:
    • The uneasy truce is resolved peacefully and strengthened into an actual alliance. The enemies that oppose it are dealt with permanently, and few are allowed a second shot.
    • The fated rivalry between the dragon emperors is broken because Issei and Vali are their own people, and treat their partners with the same respect.
    • The characters constantly improve themselves and their abilities, removing any Drama-Preserving Handicap as soon as possible
    • The romantic situation takes advantage of this as well, with Issei and Rias officially going out less than halfway through the series.
    • Issei averts being an Almighty Janitor and advances to being a Mid-Class devil halfway through the original series. After the fourth arc, he's promoted further into a High-Class devil, and starts running his own peerage and Rating Games team. The only thing preventing him from being higher rank is that he still needs to acclimate himself with the responsibilities that come with his higher rank, and even then everyone acknowledges that it's only a matter of time.
  • Stripperific: The outfits the girls wear in the ending for season 1. The second ending of Season 2 takes it up a notch.
  • Story Arc: There are four main story arcs in the series.
    • The Red Dragon Emperor's Awakening (Vol. 1 & 2)
    • Birth of the Breast Dragon Emperor (Vols. 3-6)
    • The Heroic Oppai Dragon (Vols. 7-12)
    • The Legend of Oppai Dragon and his Lively Companions (Vol. 14-21)
    • Red Dragon Emperor of the Blazing Truth × White Dragon Emperor of the Morning Star: The True Dragon(s) of the Kuoh Academy (Vol. 22-ongoing)
    • Short Story collections (Vols. 8, 13, and 15)
  • Story-Breaker Power:
    • Ophis displays zero interest in fighting, because if she ever got serious, she would destroy every opponent easily and thus finds fighting with anybody except Great Red pointless. Even when weakened, she's still double the strength of the two Heavenly Dragons.
    • And even she pales compared to what Great Red can do. He combines with Issei, made him Kaiju-sized, and told Issei to use his Dangerous Forbidden Technique (Longinus Smasher), and with some assistance by Grayfia and her group just to launch the enemy in the air, obliterates the giant monster who has an instant regeneration. All Issei could say after that was "Amazing".
    • There's also Son Wukong, who easily blocked the True Longinus with one finger and forced the entire Hero Faction to retreat.
  • Stuffy Old Songs About The Breasts: The "Gropin' Dragon" song, big time.
  • Sultry Belly Dancer: 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.
  • Super Mode: The Balance Breakers of the Sacred Gears. Word of God compares them to Super Saiyans and Bankai.
  • Super Power Lottery:
    • Various from Sacred Gear to Sacred Gear. Kiba has the the ability to create swords with any special element he wants, Vali could Divide someone's power by two every ten seconds and add the subtracted amount to his own reserves, Issei could double his own power by two every ten seconds, Gasper could stop time, and then there's Cao Cao who has the True Longinus that has 7 abilities which are all utterly broken such as the ability to destroy all weapons and an Attack Reflector.
    • Besides Sacred Gears there are people that are born into a special lineage which gives them special power exclusive to their family. Rias's family has the Power of Destruction, for example. Vali once again wins this lottery because he is the descendant of Lucifer thus he has great magic power that further boosts the power of his Sacred Gear by allowing him to feed his magic power for Juggernaut Drive which allows him to be the only person that could use this ability without drawback.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Angels, Fallen Angels, and Devils all suffer from this early in the series. The first few story arcs present the Fallen Angels as the default villains, but the leaders of all three factions are cool guys entirely willing to get along, while most of the trouble gets stirred up by their overzealous or rebellious subordinates. Largely phased out as they become The Alliance in favor of more external threats.
  • Take That!: EX and the Recap Episode of Hero were reportedly a "take that" at BorN, after Tetsuya Yanagisawa publicly revealed that he was the one who condensed volumes 5 to 7 into one 12-episode season over the objections of Ichiei Ishibumi and Takao Yoshioka.
  • Talking Is a Free Action:
    • When Issei first uses Balance Breaker, Ddraig warns him that it's only good for 10 seconds because Issei can't handle the stress of Boosted Gear. Yet, when he's fighting and talking against Riser, their conversation lasts for a few minutes while Ddraig is counting the number of seconds till Balance Breaker is up.
    • The anime fixes this, mostly by having Ddraig say he'll "count to ten" without actually specifying seconds. His count during the action is slower than seconds, but consistent, and the talk between Issei and Riser is much snappier.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Khaos Brigade, in general, is this. Ophis may be the overall leader, however the three main groups have different agendas. Vali's group is the closest one who wants to fulfill Ophis' wish to kick out Great Red from the dimension gap only because Vali wants to fight the strongest being. The Old Satan Faction only uses Ophis to regain Hell and wage another Forever War to prove that the devils are the strongest. The Hero Faction just wants to wipe out all the mythologies and prove that they're heroes.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: In-universe. Also doubles as a Running Gag.
    "Zoom Zoom Iyaaan."
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Rizevim goes through complete hell on his way down to the afterlife. He's pursued by Fafnir in his dreams, curb-stomped by Issei in his D×D form, had his arm severed by Vali, and eventually attacked and snapped up by Fafnir.
  • There Is Only One Bed: Rias Sleeps in the Nude in Issei's bed and at that point, the latter doesn't love the former.
  • Those Two Guys: Matsuda and Motohama are never seen apart when they're around with Issei.
  • A Threesome Is Hot: The suspiciously accurate details the EX chapter gives about Koneko's and Kuroka's children heavily implies they were conceived on the same night.
  • This Means War!:
    • Issei declares war on Xenovia and Irina after they taunt and attempt to kill Asia for becoming a devil in volume 3.
    • When Issei protects Koneko from harm in Volume 5, he declares war on Kuroka.
    • He does it twice in Volume 25, first toward Vidar for forcing an Arranged Marriage on his current Rook Rossweisse and later toward Hades for sending Grim Reapers to attack his father (they were actually acting independently to avenge Thanatos' defeat).
  • Tiger Versus Dragon:
    • Issei vs. Vali. The stubborn, passionate, and perverted as the Tiger. The cold, orderly, and sophisticated Vali as the Dragon.
    • Same goes with Rias vs. Akeno whenever they have a Cat Fight starting from Volume 4 onwards (episode 7 of season 2 in the anime). The easily jealous, childish Rias is the Tiger, and the calm, sadistic Akeno is the Dragon.
  • Time Crash: In EX, Loki travels to the past to cause havoc on the timeline and cause it to crash.
  • Time Travel: In EX, Issei's children have to travel to the past to capture Loki so they can study him and figure out how to undo a curse he put on Asia in the future.
  • Title Drop: The DxD in the title actually refers to several things in the story:
    • The Dragon of Dragons Great Red, one of the strongest beings in the universe.
    • The anti-terrorist task force, named after the above, formed to combat Rizevim and his Qlippoth Faction.
    • Issei's most powerful form, Dragon Drive/Diabolos Dragon.
  • Too Dumb to Live: The Two Heavenly Dragons (Ddraig and Albion), who decided during the great war to fight God, Satan and the leader of the Fallen Angels. They were quickly dismembered and the Sacred Gears - Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing - are what's left of them stored. It should be noted that in the last example it was implied that the process of sealing the two dragons took everything the Three Factions had, may have contributed to the death of God, and left the warring sides too exhausted and spent to continue their war.
  • Top Wife: All the girls know that while Issei may love each and every one of them, Rias is the one to hold the title of "legal wife". Doesn't mean that they'll let her get all the attention, however.
  • Torpedo Tits: Viser, the exiled devil in episode 3, fires lasers from her nipples.
  • Tournament Arc: How a Rating Game works. In Volume 22 The International Ratings Game takes this to a whole new level.
  • Town with a Dark Secret: Kuoh town might seem like a fun place to live, but before Rias was in charge, let's just say a lot of problems have sprung up that came back to bite everyone else in the fourth arc.
  • Training from Hell: Rias's training of Issei is nothing but this. Later on, he gets subjected to this by Tannin who trains him literally in hell.
  • Transformation Is a Free Action: Invoked. When Issei is fighting Satan Red (Sirzechs in a Super Sentai outfit), he waits for Issei to transform into his Balance Breaker, because it's a rule that you can't attack someone while they're transforming.
  • Trash the Set:
    • Kuoh Academy gets damaged by Kokabiel's attack in volume 3 and Katerea's forces from the Khaos Brigade in volume 4.
    • At the end of volume 6, the temple where Shalba and Issei are fighting in gets destroyed when Issei uses his Juggernaut Drive for the first time.
  • Trauma Button:
    • Issei's PTSD is triggered when he hears and sees Raynare in his dreams.
    • Akeno's own PTSD is triggered whenever someone mentions her Fallen Angel father Baraqiel, until they reconcile thanks to Issei.
  • Trivial Title: "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 Stealth Punnote , 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.
  • A Truce While We Gawk: In volume 7 while an epic battle is going on, Issei somehow summons a breast god (yes, there is apparently one in the universe). When he announces this, everyone on both sides stops fighting and starts staring at him as if he's done something stupidly crazy again...
  • Two-Teacher School: The only teachers who are even active in this school are Azazel and Rossweisse. The only other one was an English teacher who was only there for one scene.
  • Tyrannicide: The Khaos Brigade's reign of terror in the Underworld is severely crippled when Katerea, Creuserey and Shalba are respectively killed by Azazel, Sirzechs and Issei.
  • Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: All the different mythologies are in this series, and the only thing that's keeping them from waging war with each other is that The Alliance (devils, fallen angels, and angels) wants to make peace with other mythologies. According to Sakra Indra, the other mythologies may be cooperating on the surface, but deep down they want to destroy the other mythologies.
  • Undeathly Pallor: Pure-blooded vampires are noted to have skin so pale that they don't seem to be alive.
  • Unicorns Prefer Virgins: Unicorns will only approach virgins, and the characters need the horn of the unicorn to get Rias and Asia back to normal because they've been turned into children. While all of Issei's harem are virgins, Azazel uses Akeno as bait for the unicorn.
  • Un-person: According to exposition during EX, when Loki and the Underworld Lifeforms wreak havoc in the past, they make sure that the Chichigami is incapable of contacting Issei in one timeline (although how they do it is unknown), preventing that particular timeline from learning about parallel dimensions. It's indicated that it eventually will be undone after Issei's children travel back in time to capture Loki, but EX ends on a Sequel Hook before it can happen.
  • Unprovoked Pervert Payback: Despite numerous amounts of Fanservice, this show averts it. Hell, even Issei expected that Rias was going to hit him when she caught Koneko and him naked. Turns out, Rias just examined Koneko and stated that she needed a doctor. He also thought Koneko was gonna launch him when he accidently bumped into her during their swimming lessons. She ended up just thanking him for helping her with a Luminescent Blush on her cheeks and averted eyes.
  • Valkyries: They exist in the universe, as Odin is a character within the story Later on, one of those Valkyries becomes Rias's new Rook, Rossweisse.
  • Victory-Guided Amnesia: Rias and Issei's memories of the battle in the Dimensional Gap are wiped out at the end of BorN.
  • Void Between the Worlds: The Dimensional Gap where Ophis was born and Great Red resides in her absence. It is allegedly inhospitable to most other beings.
  • Weakened by the Light: At the beginning at least, any new reborn devil is apparently weak from sunlight. And then, there's the Light 'em Up attacks.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Volume 7. During the battle against Loki, Issei and the others do battle against his minions. Mjölnir then arrives, and Issei is the only one present strong enough to wield it. As he goes for it, Fenrir leaps up and bites him, severely wounding him in the process.
    • Volume 20 of the light novel has Issei's parents be revealed of what Issei has become over the course of the series (See Broken Masquerade above) and Trihexa, a being that is theorized to possibly be able to kill Great Red, of all beings, is finally awakened.
    • Volume 21 ensures that Nothing Is the Same Anymore. In order to ensure Trihexa doesn't escape from its new seal, most of the faction leaders and their subordinates seal themselves with Trihexa in order to battle it for who knows how long. This includes Sirzechs, Serafall and Falbium and their peerages (minus the Queens), Michael, Raphael and Uriel and their Brave Saints (minus the Aces), Azazel, Odin and Zeus. And to top it all off, the media caught the battles in the human world, exposing the existence of the supernatural, and Rizevim and the Evil Dragons threw one last middle finger at the good guys by establishing contact with another dimension and sending information on teleportation techniques across, meaning that according to estimates, interdimensional war is imminent in thirty years.
  • Wham Line:
  • What Does She See in Him?: It has been stated throughout the story from people from school are wondering why Rias and Asia are close to Issei later on Koneko, a church assassin named Xenovia, another church assassin-turned-angel named Irina, Akeno, and Ravel Phenex. If only they knew the stuff he went through for the girls.
  • Whole Episode Flashback: While interspersed with current events, the entire Volume Fifteen will talk about the different pasts of other characters and other events that was never mentioned in the light novels.
  • Will They or Won't They?: Rias does love Issei, but it takes 10 light novel volumes before he finally says it back to her. Might have something to do with his dying on his first date at the start of the series.
  • Winged Humanoid: Everyone that's in 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), while Devil wings are more bat-like.
  • World of Badass: It's much easier to count off the nonhumans who can't kick ass and take names. The only protagonist who can't hold her own in a fight is Asia, who more than earns her keep as The Medic and The Heart.
  • Would Harm a Senior: Vali has no qualms cutting off his grandfather Rizevim's arm for all the abuse the former suffered.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: This one devil ruins an angel's life by suckering her into healing him - which is taboo for angelic healers of the church. Said devil gloats in Asia's face about this in volume 6.
  • Writing Around Trademarks: Since Dragon Ball is a trademark of Shueisha, TNK got around this by changing the title to Drag-So Ball in the anime.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: The Rating Game is a team battle that involves adjusting the strategies in response to the opponents actions.
  • You Are Worth Hell: Issei goes through metric shit-tons of literal hell for all his friends. Fought Raynare when he rescues Asia, Riser for Rias when no one thought he'd win, defended Akeno when even she thought she was worthless, fought for Kiba to help him defeat his torturers from his past, helped Gasper get past his severe misanthropy and shut-in problems, defended Koneko from her sister Kuroka and helped her accept her Nekomata powers. And the list just goes on.
  • You Can't Go Home Again:
    • Asia and Xenovia are unable to return to the Church because they are considered heretics.
    • After Shuri's death, Akeno is unable to return to the Himejima Clan due to her Fallen Angel blood.
  • You Can't Thwart Stage One: Rizevim may have been killed by Fafnir, but he succeeded in unsealing Trihexa.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Happens to a bunch of kids that were part of an illegal, forced experiment to wield holy swords. Turns out none of them were able to do it, and when the project was discovered later, it was shut down, and the kids were exterminated instead of freed. Kiba was one of the children, and the others sacrificed themselves in order to give him a chance to escape. He later vows Revenge for them, and Rias takes him in so that he could serve her instead of dying in the forest.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Ddraig isn't taking the nickname Boob Dragon everyone gave him very well due to how Issei uses his power.
  • You're Not My Father: At first, Akeno is unwilling to forgive her father Baraqiel, given his part in not preventing Shuri's death, and refuses to acknowledge her relationship with him.

Waldorf: This pervert right here has been reincarnated a devil, and he still continues his antics.
Statler: What did you expect? He's a horny devil!
Both: Doh-ho-ho-ho-hoh!

Alternative Title(s): High School DXD

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