This page contains unmarked spoilers for the first four story arcs. You Have Been Warned!
- Adaptation Displacement: As is the case with most light novels that get anime adaptations, more people outside of Japan are familiar with the series through the anime than the original books. It doesn't help that the novels wouldn't be made available in English until 2020, 12 years after the first volume was published in Japan.
- Adorkable: Despite being God-Class and outranking their parents from the past, the Hyōdō-Gremory siblings are still teenagers and show some awkward cuteness like their parents had, mainly Ex when talking about breasts, Zen for being a little emotional when talking about Asia, or Airi when she believed that she was ready to learn her mother's secret recipe for her meal.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Odin really abandon Rossweisse just because he got tired of her as his bodyguard, or because he felt Rossweisse deserved better but knew talking wouldn't work with her? Or is he being the usual Manipulative Bastard that he is, gaining a powerful ally in the Gremory clan because he knew Rossweisse would still hold loyalty for her home and knowing that at the very least Issei would fight for her if she asked or needed his help.
- Anti-Climax Boss:
- Even after being turned into a chimera, Kiba one shots Freed like nothing.
- Kokabiel, the Big Bad of Volume 3, could be considered this as well due to the sudden curb-stomping he received from Vali as a means to hype up the latter's power.
- Leonardo of the Hero Faction. He is established to have control of one of the most overpowered Longinus' known to exist... and yet, he suddenly loses off-screen, and ends up randomly becoming Shalba Beelzebub's brainwashed henchman.
- The Old Satan Faction. Katerea Leviathan is quickly Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by Azazel with only a self-sacrificed (and easily replaced) arm to show for her efforts, Creuserey Asmodeus gets obliterated into dust by Sirzechs a few minutes after his introduction (and only lived that long because Sirzechs was trying to be diplomatic), and Shalba Beelzebub is curb-stomped by Issei twice, the first as a result of Juggernaut Drive and the second resulted in Issei's first kill (even Issei himself commented on how underwhelmingly weak he was), though Shalba manages a Mutual Kill through underhanded means.
- The Alliance of Hell, despite being composed of God-class enemies, posed little threat even with their underhanded methods. Nyx became a punching bag for Issei and Ddraig once her "Godly Virgin Killer Clothes" and the brainwashed Ingvild were out of the way and never really put up much of a fight even with those handicaps, Issei singlehandedly defeats Erebus pretty quickly (though he at least admits that he's not a fighter), Tartarus gets fodderized by AxA, and Angra Mainyu had to rely on Issei's vulnerability to women at the time and quickly gets overpowered once Issei recovered (albeit with more power than before). Only Hades really came off a competent threat in a direct fight, taking on pretty much the entire DxD team before going down. Balberith also counts, losing in a simple one-on-one punch-out to Sairaorg despite being hyped up as Dragon God-level (Verrine was at least under pressure from several opponents). It doesn't help that they tend to get defeated in the same volume they pick a fight with the protagonists, unlike the recurring threats from the Hero Faction and Qlippoth.
- After all the build-up to their inevitable match in the Azazel Cup, Rias is defeated quite easily by Issei, even in her Fusion Dance with Gasper Balor. Kiba ended up doing much more damage to Issei beforehand because Issei struggled with his Super-Speed.
- Arc Fatigue:
- The third season, BorN, is criticized by fans for distilling volumes 5 through 7, given the popularity of the anime series. The first half of the season is reordered to follow volumes 5 and 7, while the second half adapts volume 6 and adds an original ending. Fans did express frustration with Loki inflicting a curse on Rias and Issei.
- For some, the vampire civil war, due to what appears to be Ichiei Ishibumi using it as a side-story just to introduce Rizevim Livan Lucifer as one of the Khaos Brigade's new leaders.
- Ass Pull:
- The Breast God appearing to help defeat Loki. To be fair though, it's even treated as one in-universe.
- The relationship trauma Raynare caused to Issei is a major theme that Issei has to overcome in volume 10 and the anime's fourth season. However, despite being one of the most loved volumes amongst fans, it can come off feeling suddenly out-of-nowhere as there was absolutely no Foreshadowing in the prior volumes to show that Issei had been suffering in this regard. The anime actually sets this up better by showing glimpses of the trauma at the start of the third season, which was only just starting up the volume 5 content at that point.
- Kiba achieving Blade Blacksmith's Balance Breaker even though it was never hinted until Volume 10 he had another Sacred Gear. It isn't possible to actually develop a second Sacred Gear you aren't born with.
- Awesome Art: The illustrations done by Miyama Zero are incredibly gorgeous.
- Awesomeness Withdrawal: While the novels were ongoing up until it took a hiatus during the sequel Shin High School D×D, as a result of Adaptation Displacement, the anime tends to be what attracts more attention. And while it managed to do so for four seasons, this sentiment has occurred regularly due to gaps in between seasons. While Season 1, New, and BorN had manageable gaps of roughly one year, the gap between BorN and Hero was roughly three years, which wasn't helped by BorN suffering Adaptation Distillation and a Reset Button Ending, killing the hype the anime had in the meantime. While the release of Hero did gain some of that hype back, the lack of follow up via a fifth season for nearly five years with only the vague hints of Season 5 being "in production" all but killed the hype for many viewers.
- Base-Breaking Character:
- In spite of being the most popular villain in the series, to say that Raynare is a divisive character is an understatement: one half says that Raynare is nothing more than a smug, coward villain who deserved her comeuppance by the hands of Rias, especially for killing Issei with no good reason. The other half, instead, says that the psychological damage Raynare inflicted to Issei made the series a lot more interesting, and also that she died far too early on and could have at least had her backstory expanded on or even Hidden Depths revealed to create an engaging villain outside of just being the one who makes the plot happen. And then there are those who whitewash her like she's Draco Malfoy.
- Vali is also a recipient of this: he is either one of the more badass characters in the series or an utterly obnoxious, overpowered Karma Houdini, with little middle ground.
- Issei himself is one. A lot of fans of the series love him due to his Lovable Sex Maniac qualities and overall badass tendencies. However, many of his detractors dislike him because of those sex maniac qualities, viewing him as too perverted and insanely annoying to be a decent protagonist. Not helping matters is how Issei can't be properly intimate with any of the girls unlike many other calmer protagonists, even if implied (though later volume he goes through a Marry Them All route), because the Moment Killer and Coitus Interruptus Running Gag were overused. The cherry on top? Issei is a blatant Escapist Character where such character archetype is divisive nowadays due to once again, overused.
- The main heroine Rias is also one. Many enjoy her relationship with Issei (who he is most in love with) and the fanservice she provides, but some are annoyed by her selfishness over Issei and argue that her track record in battle is sub-optimal for the main heroine.
- Among the girls of the harem, Asia and Koneko have the most naysayers. Both have relatively child-like proportions (though Asia's breasts have grown to match Xenovia's and Koneko later gains the ability to age herself up), which can Squick some people out of the fanservice they provide or simply make it much less appealing than with the other girls.
- Asia's supporters view her as a sweetheart and The Woobie who provides vital support to her team. Her detractors complain that she is generic and sickeningly sweet with an annoyingly high-pitched voice, often gets in the way of Issei's moments with Rias (whereas the other girls will compete for Issei's attention, Asia often simply cockblocked him outright), and has no fighting capabilities whatsoever.
- Koneko's controversy, aside from her appearance, mostly comes down to her Pervert Revenge Mode toward Issei; it's either hilarious and reasonable to keep Issei's sex drive in check, or it's a complete killjoy.
- Best Known for the Fanservice: High School D×D is infamous for its gratuitous Fanservice (particularly in the anime adaptation) and Issei, a perverted hero who constantly talks about breasts. However, Issei is an Affectionate Parody of Shonen-style protagonists who is genuinely heroic and respectful towards women, and the characters and setting are surprisingly well-developed.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- Fafnir's cooking show in Volume 17 during what is supposed to be an intense battle between Issei and company against the forces of Qlippoth. Rias lampshades it as well. At the very least, it led to several Evil Dragon clones getting converted into protectors for Asia.
- During the ninja side story (side stories already having a silly tone compared to the main story), Sirzechs pops out of nowhere as Satan Red, only to be dragged back by Grayfia just as quickly. The author laments in the afterword that his brief entrance was unnecessary.
- Broken Base: Despite the DxD fanbase being surprisingly mature, there are some things that most fans don't heartily agree upon.
- If there's one thing fans really can't agree on, it's the Gremory-Sitri Rating Game. Was it thoroughly justified that the Gremory team had a limiter working against them, thus giving them a real wake up call that just powering through everything isn't really all there is to it, or was it unfair to the Gremory team that they had a limiter on them when they couldn't show off what they could do now after their training? Or you're probably on the third faction and thought that the limiter made the Sitri team look weak, never mind Souna being able to adapt things on the fly because only the protagonist has the right to be a Combat Pragmatist, right? Part of the problem really is because Issei, the protagonist himself, gets taken out halfway through the game because of said limiter imposed when most series would have the protagonist be present all the way to the end.
- Who is better? Rias or Akeno? Most fans like both of them at the same time, though some Take a Third Option and instead choose Asia...or Koneko which is, err, complicated.
- The ever present Dub vs. Sub debate. Complicating the issue is that the dub is censored for simulcast note , but is full of Woolseyism.
- The level of fanservice is a hot issue. DxD is well known for its heavy ecchi elements and its extremely perverted protagonist who's gotten several powerups through lust. Some enjoy the fanservice itself and how unapologetically over-the-top it is, while others criticize it for often messing up the tone (especially in the anime, which throws in gratuitous Clothing Damage even in serious moments like Asia dying from Raynare extracting her Sacred Gear) and find Issei impossible to take seriously. Later on, some controversy arose on the opposite end of the spectrum about the fanservice being too shallow or exploitative, pointing out how long the story has gone without actual intimacy despite the clear interest in all parties involved and less raunchy works often has intimate scenes, implied or otherwise.
- The third season of the anime has garnered particular attention thanks to Tetsuya Yanagisawa altering the timing of some events from the novels against Ichiei Ishibumi and Takao Yoshioka's recommendations.
- With the fourth season being produced by Passione this time around, Makoto Uno redesigned the characters to match the light novels. Was it for the better, or for the worst?
- Complete Monster:
- Freed Sellzen is a naytheist exorcist who joined the Holy Church merely to hunt down and kill monsters. Upon being excommunicated, Freed loaned out his services to multiple villains to quench his blood thirst. First seen murdering one of Issei Hyodou's clients, Freed attempts to murder Issei himself, and when Asia Argento stops him, he tries to rape her, fleeing with her when Rias Gremory and her peerage overpower him. Working under the warmonger Kokabiel, Freed nearly beats Irina to death and taunts Kiba with the fact his swords were made from experiments that resulted in the deaths of Kiba's childhood friends. Finally willingly becoming a chimera for one last chance to kill the heroes, Freed even devours Diodora's two knights to further boost his strength.
- Valper Galilei was formerly in charge of the Church's "Holy Sword Project", something he took advantage of by kidnapping dozens of children and performing heinous experiments on them, which proved fatal in many cases. When Galilei found many were incapable of wielding the Holy Sword, he merely had them all killed, leaving only Kiba alive. Galieli's actions were horrific enough to earn him excommunication by the Church, resulting in him allying with the Fallen Angel, Kokabiel, aiding him in his aims to create a colossal war. Facing Kiba while fighting with Kokabiel, Galilei tells him the children he killed were worthless and that Kiba should have died with them.
- Diodora Astaroth attempts to bargain with Rias for Asia, and when rejected, kidnaps Asia and puts her in a device that drains her life force. Confronted by Rias and peerage, Diodora reveals he pretends to be injured to lure nuns, one of whom he attempted this on was Asia, to try and heal him so he can attack and force them to become his sex slaves to satisfy his depraved fetish. While fighting Issei, Diodora brags to Issei that he looks forward to raping Asia every day while she cries his name. Finally defeated, Diodora still plans for Asia's life force to be drained out of pure spite even as he dies.
- Rizevim Livan Lucifer, son of Lucifer and Lilith, is a hedonistic, wicked devil who believes Devils are meant to be beings of pure evil. To that end, he convinced his son to horribly abuse his own son Vali, using his son's wife as a hostage for that purpose. Rizevim then murdered his own son and abandoned Vali. Returning upon learning of Trihexa, the beast of the apocalypse, Rizevim seeks to use it to destroy the world and rule over what's left. Attacking the vampire race and also heaven to kill as much as he can in pursuit of the Grails to free Trihexa, Rizevim also abuses and tries to murder the gentle Asia Argento. When he is finally killed, Rizevim even uses his own soul as a means to unleash Trihexa, determined to take all creation to death with him.
- Crazy Is Cool:
- Seriously, there is no limit to Issei's ability pulling off all the crazy stuff he is able to do. To wit, he has: done a rescue mission to Asia by punching out a Fallen Angel so hard she bursts through the wall (out the window in the anime), barged in an engagement party full of devils to take back Rias, invented Dress Break and Bilingual out of pure lust, defeats Riser, an immortal phoenix, not with the use of his newly-found dragon powers, but by using a holy cross and holy water which he can't even use because he's a devil but is capable to do so because his arm is a dragon's, powers up with lust and by using Rias' breasts, accidentally summons the Breast God (well Breast Fairy but still definitely counts), is capable of breathing fire to a shadow-using opponent, and was able to make the past users of Boosted Gear come back to the light and make them stop relying on Juggernaut Drive with breasts. If there's one thing Rias recruited to her group, it's the fact that she recruited the craziest character of the series. No one out-crazies Issei at all in this series. And yet somehow, he's also the Only Sane Man in the group (when he's not doing his lecherous ways).
- Rias may count to a lesser degree too. Who's crazy enough to be willing to bare her breasts open just to let Issei get a power up in public viewing!? Also, renovate Issei's house from a simple house into a six-story mansion with a three-story basement and an elevator overnight!?
- Azazel too can count as one. The craziest idea he pulled off is that to capture the Issei clones he accidentally unleashed, he suggests the idea of using fishing on them. With porn as the bait.
- Forget Azazel himself, the entire Grigori institute counts.
- Die for Our Ship:
- Despite being a harem and everything, people seem to not like Asia as much as the rest of the characters because according to the fans, she's too clingy to Issei to share with everybody else. This lightened up (for novel readers, at least) after the introduction of Fafnir, who adds many humorous moments to Asia's character and gives her a much-needed power up.
- Koneko isn't safe from this either, possibly due to her much more prudish behavior towards Issei than the rest of the girls. However, her character arc in Volume 5, which caused her to lighten up to Issei more, mitigated this a bit.
- Draco in Leather Pants:
- Raynare, to an unreasonable extent. She mercilessly kills Issei, ridicules and tells him that the date was so boring to the point that she's willing to kill him, mercilessly killed Asia to steal her sacred gear, and has the gall to try and beg Issei to rescue her after she's left to Rias' mercy. Yet that doesn't stop people from whitewashing her and making her out to be a good person deep down despite her going out of her way to be as despicable as possible. Some go even further by subjecting Rias and Asia to Ron the Death Eater solely to justify Raynare's actions.
- Kuroka is one as well. While she does undergo a Heel–Face Turn and was later revealed to have a Freudian Excuse for turning on her former master, she debuts attempting to kill Koneko and her friends. Though in her case, like with Vali threatening Issei's parents despite being a Friendly Rival later on, this may be a case of Early-Installment Weirdness.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Mil-tan has appeared in only a few scenes and is one of the most discussed characters in the series. Take note, he's a Creepy Crossdresser. There are groups of fans who continue to insist Mil-tan is actually the supposedly dead Bible God and is just screwing with everyone because it's funny.
- Aika Kiryu has gained a substantial fanbase thanks to being a Distaff Counterpart of the entire Perverted Trio, having an entertaining yet sweet relationship with Asia, and being a lot smarter and in tune with the supernatural than she normally implies she is. Many fanfics have given her increased roles as a result, if not outright including her in Issei's harem.
- Ophis is particularly well-loved by the audience too for being a snarky loli with no filter.
- Kuroka is shown to enjoy a good degree of popularity in the fandom and is possibly the only girl in the show itself to rival Rias and Akeno in popularity. All in all, she definitely does eclipse her younger sister Koneko in popularity. Perhaps coincidentally, her breast size is also third after Akeno and Rias among recorded characters. This is also possibly one of the reasons of her subsequent inclusion into the harem.
- Escapist Character: Issei to an absurd degree. He starts the series off as an Ordinary High-School Student, who's considered an unpopular, perverted loser by pretty much everyone along with his two friends. Then after joining the Occult Research Club, he spends all of his time with the most popular people in school, wins the undying love of no less than seven absolutely gorgeous women, all of whom have no problem sharing him, and starts a relationship with the most beautiful girl in school, who also happens to be a noble. He learns that he essentially shares his body with one of the most powerful beings in existence, takes level after level in badass in record time, gains the admiration of his peers, becomes insanely rich after his new brother-in-law makes an incredibly popular TV show based on him, and said brother-in-law orders his house to be renovated into a mansion with the explicit intent of promoting intimacy by having all the Club's girls move in. The guy goes from being The Everyman to becoming the fantasy of hormonal teenage boys everywhere before he's even reached his third year of high school.
- Fan-Preferred Couple:
- Issei/Akeno seems to edge out the Official Couple Issei/Rias in terms of popularity. This is further enhanced by the fact that Akeno is the first girl in the harem that Issei goes out on a date with (barring Asia). Its also because Akeno has a bigger bust than Rias which Issei naturally prefers.
- Some also prefer Issei/Kiba.
- Issei/Yumi.
- Fandom Rivalry: Some Attack on Titan fanboys don't look on DxD in a good way, if simply because they don't like how series protagonist Eren Yeager shares his voice with a Lovable Sex Maniac. This rivalry, however, is mostly one-sided, since the DxD fandom doesn't really care about AoT in one way or another.
- Fandom-Specific Plot:
- Fanfics love to give Starter Villain Raynere redeeming qualities, even sometimes give her a Heel–Face Turn. This isn't lost on the reviewers
either. - If any crossover character replaces Issei, they will die the same way. Even if they realistically shouldn't be killed by someone like Raynare. Or are too smart to fall for such a ruse.
- As is common with harem series, fics that replace Issei with a self-insert are not hard to find.
- Crossover fics giving Issei a best friend in the form of a different character are quite commonplace. Usually the other character is a lot more chaste then Issei is, and usually reigns him in during his more perverted antics.
- Fanfics love to give Starter Villain Raynere redeeming qualities, even sometimes give her a Heel–Face Turn. This isn't lost on the reviewers
- Fan Nickname:
- Hypnobutt - Koneko swaying her butt on the screen in the ending
- Weapon NTR - for Issei and Kiba hijacking both True Longinus and all of Siegfried's swords respectively.
- GAR-sper - In some circles, Gasper after his awesome moment in Volume 10.
- Kenpachi dragon - Grendel is called this in the Imageboards thanks to his Blood Knight attitude while fighting Issei.
- Dragon swag - What fans refer to when Issei attracts someone's attention.
- Dickora - for Diodora, which further cements his Hate Sink status.
- Cat-Bird Duo - Koneko and Ravel due to their Vitriolic Best Buds relationship due to Animal Jingoism.
- Loli Trio - Ophis, Lilith, and Kunou for being the Token Mini Moes in the Hyoudou Residence.
- Fanon:
- It's commonly believed that Rias let Issei die so that she could do an Emergency Transformation on him, and that she and the ORC had been watching Issei as he was scouted by Raynare. This, however, is a result of an Adaptation Induced Plothole.note
- The actions of Raynare in regards to Issei are often believed to be a result of her disobeying Azazel's orders to monitor Issei and outright killing him instead than risk the potential threat. As it turns out, Azazel had Raynare assassinate Issei because he saw him too great a risk. This is understandable due to Azazel undergoing Characterization Marches On, as most of Azazel's appearances depict him as a Sacred Gear loving nut. Combined with the fact he willingly adopted Vali, the wielder of Divine Dividing and a half-devil, it makes his decision to have Issei killed come across as odd, hence the confusion.
- Riser Phenex is often seen as a misogynistic Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy willing to kill Issei for interfering with his wedding with Rias. This, however, is a result of an Adaptation Personality Change, as the anime depicts him in this manner, while the original Light Novel depicts him as still arrogant, but not without honor, respect, and decency. In both versions, he's still depicted as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- A rather common misconception is that Reincarnated Devils are essentially slaves to their masters. This, however, is entirely dependent on the master. While some devils like Diodora Astaroth do treat their servants as slaves, other Devils like Rias, Sona, and Sairaorg treat their peerages like family.note Even Riser's peerage is shown to have Undying Loyalty towards him rather than need to be ordered by him. Reincarnated Devils are able to gather Peerages of their own as well, lessening the slave analogy further.
- Friendly Fandoms: More prominently with The Testament of Sister New Devil, Date A Live, Monster Musume, and Senran Kagura, but there is also a chance that a DxD fan may also be a fan of To Love Ru (even though the respective fandoms are used to some gibes between each other).
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: According to Ishibumi himself, the anime's fourth season, Hero, was very popular overseas.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- During the dodgeball game in Volume 3, Issei ends up taking a blow to the crotch to protect Kiba while the latter's attention is elsewhere, with Rias swearing vengeance as if Issei had just been killed. Fast forward to Volume 12, where Issei's temporary death leaves the Club stuck between depression and a lust for revenge.
- Issei living together with Asia and using Dress Break on Riser Phenex's peerage becomes even less funny when his English VA, Scott Freeman, would be convicted for multiple counts of child pornography.
- Asia can get assertive towards Issei at various points in the story, which is sometimes Played for Laughs. Her real-life namesake was accused of sexually assaulting Jimmy Bennett, whom she met when he was seven and paying him off $380k of hush money. Now watch these scenes with this fact in mind...
- One of the short stories of the series was about the Issei clones that Azazel had played a prank on Issei. It was mostly funny until the part where they had to use the memory-erasing machine Azazel had invented (at best, they could only erase the memory of the clones running around but didn't erase the fact that an Issei clone did it, leaving the victims thinking the real Issei had done it to them because it would damage their brain memory). At that point in time, it was hilarious, albeit a bit unfair to Issei who didn't really deserve all that. Fast forward to volume fourteen, and that memory-erasing machine incident suddenly doesn't become funny any more thanks to the student council group using it to wipe off the memories of the students were the victim of a rouge wizard terrorist attack at the school, which leaves students traumatized of something but not what. This left a bitter taste to the student council and the protagonists.
- Asia being exiled from the church as The Heretic becomes more disturbing when Xenovia gets banished for learning the truth about God; and Diodora, the devil whom Asia healed, raped quite a few nuns and got them exiled even before he met the latter.
- The Khaos Brigade's terrorist attacks on the Three Factions becomes even more nightmarish when actual terrorist attacks would occur in the Middle East, such as those in Iraq and Syria, as well as in Europe, such as those in Paris and Nice. And all of these took place during the course of the series' run.
- The series is banned in New Zealand on the counts that it promotes child pornography. Then it was shown why Scott Freeman was unavailable for voicing Issei in BorN, as it came out that he got arrested and convicted for multiple counts of possession of child pornography. It also makes the scene where Issei uses his Dress Break against Riser Phenex's peerage uncomfortable to watch in the English dub. What's even worse is that he was arrested months before BorN aired!
- In volume 6, Diodora Astaroth mentioned how he would enjoy raping Asia while she screams for Issei's help. Along with The Reveal that Diehauser Belial and Roygun Belphegor were actually in on the Rating Game corruption in Volume 20, Diodora's planed sexual assault is a lot harder to swallow after film executive Harvey Weinstein was dismissed from The Weinstein Company in 2017 following reports of his history of sexual misconduct and mistreatment of female employees and actresses, including Asia's Real Life namesake, Asia Argento.
- At first, Rias and Sairaorg are criticised for being kings who fight in addition to commanding their pieces. But later, we learn that Bedeze Abaddon and Roygun Belphegor have used their King pieces for not-so-legal reasons in the Rating Games.
- Heartwarming in Hindsight:
- Asia Argento was an orphan and adopted into the Church and during her time as a nun, was referred to as sister by the other church officials. Several volumes later, Dulio Gesualdo reveals that he views those who came from churches as his brothers and sisters and has a fondness for orphaned children.
- Akeno's engagement to Issei when her voice actress Shizuka Itō married in December 2012.
- Ravel having a child with Issei when her English VA Brittney Karbowski would have a daughter in October 2014.
- In Volume 11, Koneko became the first girl to actually propose to Issei. In a combination of both heartwarming and hilarious, Yūki Kaji (Issei) and Ayana Taketatsu (Koneko) got married in 2019. The light novel's illustrator even drew a picture of the two characters to congratulate the newlyweds. The character designer for the first three seasons of the anime also joined in and drew them to celebrate.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Yōko Hikasa played Seraphim, a vampire ninja, in Is This A Zombie?. Here, she plays Rias Gremory, a devil, who is the master of her servants, particularly the vampire Gasper Vladi.
- Jad Saxton voicing Koneko Toujou becomes amusing once you realize that she also voiced Carla, who resembles a cat like Koneko, in Fairy Tail. The fifth Blu-ray/DVD release of Fairy Tail was released one month before the Blu-ray/DVD release of High School DxD. What's more, Saxton has a cat named Granger.
- In Volume 3, Rias scoffs at Xenovia's statement that she, the sister of a Satan, would ever team up with a Fallen Angel. One volume later, the Three Factions form a peace treaty and said Satan enlists the leader of the Fallen Angels, Azazel, to become Rias' club advisor.
- Vali notes back in the fourth volume that the current red-white dragon rivalry was a bit unfair because Vali's the descendant of the old Lucifer and Issei's the son of a common Muggle. Vali wishes that Issei's parents were a bit special so they can have a more interesting match. Now that Great Red and Ophis are both Issei's parents by proxy by creating a body for him from Great Red's flesh and Ophis' powers, let's just say Vali's wish came true. Though seeing as Vali's a Blood Knight, he's probably pleased with the development.
- Also from the fourth volume was Vali bringing up the setting's Super Weight, speculating that even Sirzechs wouldn't rank among the Top 10. Later, Sirzechs reveals his true form, a human-shaped mass of Power of Destruction, which Word of God states does put him amongst the Top 10.
- The volume one afterword has the supposedly final battle will be between a guy who can breath flames and Issei supposedly shooting out a blaster. Now read how the final clash between Issei and Jabberwocky went in volume 12.
- During the Familiar side story, Issei is recommended Tiamat, despite his concerns about being a Satan-level Dragon King. Rias suggests that he will have decent compatibility because he is already housing the soul of another legendary Dragon, Ddraig. We later learn that Tiamat actually hates Ddraig for borrowing her treasure and losing it.
- For those who have played The Last Remnant, whenever Kiba calls Irina Shidou, you might be reminded of how Rush always calls Irina.
- Rias is rumored to be from Europe according to Motohama. Come several volumes later, Rias and her friends travel to Romania, a country located in Europe.
- Mil-tan contracts with Issei so a devil can make him a magical girl. Issei considers it impossible and says he'd have better luck going to an alternate universe. Sometime later, Azazel, as a member of the ORC where Issei works, makes a gender-swap ray gun...
- Lauren Landa, who voiced Xenovia in the dub, would later go on to voice another devil by the name of Mio Naruse in The Testament of Sister New Devil, which was released in North America two years after BorN.
- Gasper and Irina's relationship becomes funnier when Ayane Sakura and Maaya Uchida would later go on to play Sakura Amamiya and Hatsuho Shinonome in Sakura Wars (2019).
- Issei's dream is to become the Harem King, a fan nickname his English voice actor Josh Grelle has for voicing many male protagonists in the Harem genre.
- Ho Yay: Believe it or not, now has its own page!
- I Knew It!:
- Some people got it correct when they thought that Great Red was going to help out both Issei and Ophis. No one, however, thought that Great Red has a Delinquent personality.
- Quite a few people guessed correctly that Passione would animate the fourth season.
- Many fans have already guessed that Issei would have children with his harem by the time EX was released.
- When the first episode of Hero was premiered in March 2018, quite a few fans correctly guessed that the series would eventually retcon BorN out of existence with Life 0's adaptation of Volume 6.
- Fans of the English dub speculated that Ramona Newel, Xenovia's actress, would be connected to Lauren Landa. They were right. What's even better is that Landa went by her actual name for Hero.
- Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Issei, though this isn't really surprising.
- Memetic Badass:
- Issei motherfucking Hyodo. What did you expect from somebody who has just as many Badass tropes as the freaking Dragonborn?
- Also, GARspernote , Azazelnote , and Sirzechsnote are very prominent in the Imageboards.
- Vali is also seen as this by his supporters, winning the Superpower Lottery by being the great-grandson of the original Lucifer as well as the host of Issei's counterpart Longinus.
- Memetic Mutation:
- Somewhat a meta example: if any volume is delayed for its release, expect people to post about Ishibumi and trains. Fandom just went with it.note
- The first ending credits of the anime. Koneko-chan shaking that has gotten fans attention.
- Moe: Lots of the girls in the series. Asia and Koneko are perhaps the most obvious cases.
- Most Wonderful Sound:
- BOOST!
- When Ddraig gets to use his rival's power: DIVIDE!
- Never Live It Down: In general, BorN gets a lot of ridicule thrown in its direction for altering the storyline to the point that Ichiei Ishibumi wrote the spin-off novel, EX, to declare it Canon Discontinuity and pull an Author's Saving Throw on it.
- One-Scene Wonder: The Breast God when she appeared before Issei to help him defeat the evil God, Loki.
- One True Threesome: Issei/Rias/Akeno is probably the most popular out of all of the show's OT3s.
- Periphery Demographic: To the surprise of Ishibumi, there are a lot of female fans of the series despite the numerous amounts of Fanservice. Heck, one bookstore had the series volumes in the women section.
- Ron the Death Eater:
- For whatever bizarre reason, Issei is made to be a much bigger loser then he really was at the beginning of the story to make whatever OC insert fanfic writers make to make him look better then Issei, usually accompanied with stealing Issei's harem members if Issei is still around in the story if not outright replaced entirely.
- Rias also gets this, due to people exaggerating her selfishness from early on in the series, completely missing the point that as a devil, regardless of how kindhearted they could be, are still inherently selfish to a fault, with Rias not being the only devil that's portrayed as this despite good intentions.note Not helping matters is that this often coincides with Raynare receiving Draco in Leather Pants status, with many whitewashing Raynare by dragging Rias through the mud in the process.
- Not just Rias, but the Gremory family like Sirzechs, Venelana, Zeoticus and some members of the Occult Research Club get this as well. In particular with their anger at Issei for ignoring Rias' feelings, portraying them as being uncaring that Issei was suffering from trauma thanks to Raynare, when the entire point in canon was that they didn't realize that he had been traumatized, and upon realizing so, immediately rushed to comfort him and broke down crying with him.
- Some outright accuse Rias of having her peerage as her slaves. While this is not unheard of in other devil families* , the Gremory family is specifically noted to be one of the kindest families in regards to their servants, treating them like family, with Rias being no exception*
- A lot of the above ideas often crop up in Betrayal fan-fiction, particularly after Volume 10, by having Issei become more vengeful towards ORC for their extreme berating of him due to not understanding Rias' feelings for him, despite not realizing that he subconsciously does so because of the trauma Raynare induced on him.
- Riser Phenex is an odd example, given he was an Arc Villain and a Smug Super who was in an Arranged Marriage with Rias that taunted the heroes multiple times and didn't have the greatest respect for Rias as her own person. But at the same time he accepted his ultimate defeat with grace and even grew to truly respect Issei as a person and his dreams of getting his own harem, plus everything indicates he truly loves the members of his peerage. Despite this, it's actually very common to find fanworks that demonize him into a full-on abuser and enslaver to his own peerage who all secretly hate his guts, fully intending on abusing Rias once she's married to him, degrading his fighting prowess and reputation to Smug Snake territory just begging to get beaten the shit out of by either a cooler Issei or whatever OC or crossover character is taking his place, and tends to just fade out of the story after that.
- The Scrappy: Issei's "friends" outside of the supernatural, Matsuda and Motohama. The two of them regularly gain the ire of the fans for being just as perverted as Issei but lacking any of his depth, regularly beating the crap out of Issei and spreading vicious rumors about him out of pure jealousy, and just being overall wastes of time whenever they show up. Many wonder why Issei is even friends with them anymore when they do nothing but cause him trouble.
- Signature Scene:
- Issei's "death" at the hands of Raynare which set the tone for the story to be much more than a basic Harem series.
- Issei waking up in his bed next to a naked Rias.
- Suspiciously Similar Song: The track "Memories of That Day" from BorN may remind some of the main theme from the Love Story soundtrack by Francis Lai.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- Many fans who read the light novels criticize the anime's placement of volumes 5-7 in BorN. It ended up being so widespread that Ichiei Ishibumi and Kadokawa actually apologized for what happened.
- A major complaint many had with Hero was that, due to the Art Shift resulting from the switch to Passione, many of the characters began to suffer from Only Six Faces and could appear Off-Model. And while the overall adaptation quality was well received, numerous people admitted to preferring the TNK character designs, not helped by the fact most flashbacks in Hero retained the footage from the TNK seasons, only highlighting the art style difference.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- There's a section of the fanbase (even including the ones that don't engage in Draco in Leather Pants treatment) that tends to believe that Raynare died way too early in the story. Some even think that she should have survived, either to become a recurring villain or even make for an interesting addition to Issei's harem as a Token Evil Teammate of some sort.
- Many wish that Aika Kiryu had a bigger role than she does, as she tends to be seen as a natural fit for Issei due to her being just as perverted as him, possesses a natural rapport with Issei that leads to comedy, is much more interesting than Issei's actual non-supernatural friends Matsuda and Motohama, forms a funny/sweet dynamic with Asia, and has a natural talent for magic. Many can only lament that she's instead only reserved for comic relief, and only started gaining minor relevancy in the final act of the series by acting as Lavinia Reni's student.
- The Heaven characters, in general, have also been greatly underutilized when it comes to the overall story. Apart from Irina, who's part of Issei's harem, Heaven's Angel characters only make rare appearances from time to time, and Heaven as a location only gets its day in the limelight as the setting for Volume 18.
- Samael, a fallen angel/dragon hybrid known as the Dragon Eater, who Azazel states was created from God's hatred. His very existence is lethal to dragons, and just exposure to his blood is enough to kill Issei, debilitate Vali, and even greatly weaken Ophis. He's so dangerous that he was locked away in Cocytus, the deepest part of the Underworld, effectively making him a Truer to the Text version of Satan than any of the other bearers of the title in the setting. Despite being one of the most conceptually terrifying beings introduced in the story, his only appearance so far is when he's raised from his prison by Hades, who completely binds him up and gives him to the Hero Faction, so they can utilize him as a weapon. After the Hero Faction is defeated, Samael is resealed and hasn't even been mentioned since then. What's particularly strange is when Hades and his Alliance of Hell hypocritically take advantage of two Longinus they fear so much to weaken Issei, but Word of God explains that they considered Samael, which had already once killed him, too dangerous to unseal again.
- Gasper’s childhood friend Valerie Tepes, a half-vampire who possesses the Holy Grail, a Longinus which played a prominent role in the hands of the antagonists during the fourth arc. Unfortunately, she's ended up as little more than a Satellite Character to Gasper to fuel his Character Development, her vampire abilities have gone largely unexplored, she received Incinerate Anthem during the climax of the fourth arc but does nothing of note with it, and even when she joins Rias’ team in the Azazel Cup, her contribution with her Holy Grail amounts to being an explicitly worse healer than Asia who gets retired after doing virtually nothing against Vali and Issei’s teams.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The vampire civil war that takes place in volumes 14 and 16. The only reasons why the vampires got involved in the plot was just so the writer could introduce Rizevim Lucifer, and to give a bit of much-needed Character Development for Gasper. Some fans thought that the vampire civil war needed more time to take in and develop than what was given.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The vampire war that takes place from Volume 14 to 16. On top of the conflict itself coming off as a side event to the revival of Khaos Brigade under Rizevim, virtually all pure-blooded vampires at the time were portrayed as selfish, discriminatory elites, making it very difficult to care who comes out on top. The protagonists themselves have no investment in the war, nor any particular good will toward vampire society in general; their only concern was ensuring Valerie's safety. The Arc even comes off as Trapped by Mountain Lions, as the only changes from that arc to stick are a bit of Character Development for Gasper and the inclusion of Valerie and Elmenhilde later on.
- Tough Act to Follow:
- The show-stopping pole-dance ending-song sequence Study X Study from the anime's first season, with its energetic and upbeat song and astoundingly fluid and well-designed animation (all animated by one man, mind you) set such a high standard (and became a Cult-Favourite amongst fans) that the second/third ending sequence from New simply couldn't top it, and hence the crew didn't even try.
- The vampire civil war gets this reaction for taking place just moments after the Final Battle against the Khaos Brigade's Hero Faction; helped by the immense build-up the Hero Faction had until that point. Not only were the vampires incredibly underdeveloped in comparison to the Heroes (Cao Cao in particular), the vampire war, itself, comes off as an irrelevant side-story just to have a setting to introduce the new leaders of the Khaos Brigade.
- Unexpected Character:
- Very few readers expected that Ravel Phenex would join the Occult Research Club when volume 10 was released.
- No one expected Ophis to move into the Hyoudou household.
- Given that Elmenhilde Karlstein was a minor character who was Put on a Bus after volume 16, her appearance in volume 21 to become Issei's lover and eventually, join his team in the Azazel Cup as a pawn, is surprising.
- Win Back the Crowd: BorN left a bad taste in everyone's mouths because of Tetsuya Yanagisawa and TNK making several changes and adding an anime-original arc for the last three episodes. Fortunately, they didn't dwell on it too long once the EX spin-off was written and the fourth season, Hero, was produced. It was further helped when Life 0 of Hero premiered on April 10, 2018. Many fans were concerned about the switch to Passione and the resulting art shift, but most of those were won over when the first episode turned out to be a (mostly) beautifully-animated retcon of BorN's Juggernaut Drive scene, complete with the long-awaited Grabbin' Dragon Song and other important details that TNK left out of their version.
- The Woobie: See them here.
- Woolseyism: For their dub, Funimation has noticeably added a fair dose of sexual references and cranked the eroticism in the dialogue, most notably with Akeno. But given the show's nature, it works. Most of the Funny Moments page is done using dub vs. sub, as a matter of fact.
