Highschool DxD

Light Novel, first volume.

"Are you serious! I'm able to make my own harem? I could have sex with them as well right?"
"Yes. I think it's fine if it’s with your servants."
I felt a shock going through my body. Absurd! Something like that is actually possible? In the real world and also as a human, it is really hard to build your own harem. If I was still an ordinary human, no matter what I'd do, I won't be able to get a batch of girls since right now I'm in a bad position.
I don't even have a single girlfriend. Well I did, but I was killed by my ex. But now! Now I can...!
"Oooohhhh yeaaah!! Being a devil rocks! Hell yeah! I can't calm myself anymore! I probably can throw away my porn!" He never throws it though.

Remember your first date and how much it sucked, what with nervousness, lack of ideas as to what to do, and running late when you thought you came in early? Well, Issei Hyoudou has you beat. Okay, his first date started out well enough—in fact, 99% of it was awesome. It's just that the other 1% involved his girlfriend stabbing him in the stomach and leaving him to bleed to death.

Enter Rias Gremory, his school's beautiful, crimson-haired sweetheart. She's also a demon queen, who resurrects him. Without knowing what became of him, Issei returns to his normal life of watching porn, peeking into changing rooms and interacting with his two fellow perverts. But no sooner had he started reconnecting to his old life than a fallen angel attacks him, only to be saved once more by Rias—now accompanied by two of her faithful servants, Akeno Himejima and Koneko Toujou.

The next day he wakes up naked, right next to an equally naked Rias, who then tells him that she has saved him by turning him into a demon, and is now under her employ. With a promise of power, glory and his very own harem, Issei doesn't mind the tradeoff and quickly jumps onto the prospect. To this end he joins the Occult Club, consisting of himself, Rias, Akeno and Koneko, as well as Asia Argento, a girl raised in a church, and Yuuto Kiba, the school's charismatic prettyboy.

An ongoing 2008 Light Novel series by Ichiei Ishibumi and illustrated by Miyama-Zero, High School DxD is a series that runs away with all the gratuitous Fan Service and one boy's slow ascent up the ranks of the demon world. It also has an ongoing 2011 manga series illustrated by Hiroji Mishima and a Winter 2012 Anime adaptation.

There is also a Lighter and Softer Spin-Off of this series, starring Asia and Koneko called High School DxD: Asia and Koneko's Secret Contracts.

Baka-Tsuki has a translation project for the Light Novels.

FUNimation also has licensed the anime. You can watch it here at Funimation or here at Nico Douga. They're censored though.

The series is decidedly not about high-schoolers playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Tropes used in Highschool DxD include:
  • Abuse Is Okay When Its Female On Male: Downplayed since it's only Koneko who attacks him.
  • Action Girl: So far almost all female devils (except Asia) are pretty good at ass-kicking anyone with either physical or magical attacks.
  • 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.
  • 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 and so on.
  • 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.
  • All Just a Dream: The 2nd special episode.
  • All Men Are Perverts: We start with Issei of course, 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 Myths Are True: The Greek and Norse are confirmed in the novels. Heroes such as King Arthur and Cao Cao feature as well.
  • Another Dimension: Cao Cao traps the group in one in Volume 11.
  • Anti-Hero: Pretty hard to find, but Akeno is a Type II, due to her sadism. Azazel is more of a Type III and Xenovia starts off as a Type III as well.
  • Ars Goetia: The Gremory and the Phenex family names are in it.
  • 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 stop fighting and start staring at him as if he's done something stupidly crazy again...
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: If you are a leader of a faction, one of the minimum requirements is that you have to kick ass.
  • Ax Crazy: [[[Light IS Not Good|Freed]], full stop.
  • Badass: So many.
  • 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. Later in the Manga it's averted.
  • Averted in episode 2 of the anime, when we see Issei naked and anatomically correct.
  • Barehanded Blade Block: The original Son Goku uses only one finger against Cao Cao's True Longinus.
  • Battle Harem: The more girls who join the Occult Research Club, the more girls Issei gets. Said girls include Rias, Akeno, Xenovia, Asia, and Koneko, who are later joined by Rossweisse, Irina Shidou and Ravel Phenex.
  • Bedmate Reveal: At the end of episode 1 has Issei waking up and finding.[1]
  • Berserk Button: Pretty much every member of the Occult Research Club has one of these, with Issei and Rias sharing the same main one; hurt, insult or threaten any one of their harem/servants, including each other (in fact, especially each other) and one or both will make you very, very sorry. Countless villains have learned this the hard way.
  • Beyond the Impossible: How much can Issei power up using Rias' breasts!? How much HSQ are the fights 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.
  • Big Fancy House: Rias' house in the Underworld and later on, Issei's house becomes this.
  • Bishounen: Kiba
  • Bishoujo Genre: All of the main girls and most of the supporting ones are attractive women
  • Boobs of Steel: Rias, Akeno.. it's all good.
  • Book Ends: The anime starts and ends with the same scenes, with slight differences.
  • Blood Knight: Akeno is a combat sadist, and so is the white dragon.
  • Brick Joke: Sirzechs' suggestion to Issei to use Gift on Rias' breasts in Volume 4. Seven volumes later, it shows Issei replenishing his aura at the cost of Rias' breasts shrinking.
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: Anybody who is in the high ranks are this. Sirzechs, Serafore, Azazel, Odin.. take your pick.
  • Butt Monkey: Compare everyone in the Occult 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.
  • Can't Catch Up: Beginning to show shades of this in the Light Novels in regards 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 Baal using his Balance Breaker where as Kiba, enovia and Rossweisse (the three strongest in the Occult Club with Kiba being by far the stronger of the three) only managed to cut off a arm of Sairaorg without Balance Breaker and the rest likely couldn't even scratch Sairaorg.
  • Catgirl: They exist in the universe Koneko is one
  • Chainsaw Good: Raiser's two pawns, who are also twins, uses this against Issei.
  • Chess Motifs: Rias is the King, Akeno is the Queen, Kiba is the Knight, Koneko is the Rook, and Issei is the Pawn. Of course, if you know how pawns work in chess...
  • Chekhov's Gun: Asia showing the holy water to the club room proves instrumental to Issei when he needed to defeat Raiser.
    • Back in Volume 4, Issei absorbed some of Vali's powers by infusing a part of the White 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 past Red Dragon Emperors lose grip on Issei. He then gets to use Illegal Triana Cardinal Crimson Queen Mode.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Quite a few in this series that were mentioned at best make an appearance:
    • 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 can never forgive her father. Three volumes later, he makes an appearance. They finally get to resolve their issues too.
    • Come to think of it, Gasper is technically one too by Rias alluding that she used her first Bishop piece already back at the end of the first volume.
    • Volume 10 has a boy who couldn't make it into the autograph event and that Issei was able to sign an autograph for him back stage and told him to not cry at all. At the climax of his and Sairaorg's match, that same kid encouraged the other kids that the Oppai Dragon will never give up, thus kids reaching out to him and not give in to Juggernaut Drive.
  • Chick Magnet: Not so much in the beginning Issei, but after being reborn...so many hot women are after him.
    • According to Ddraig, anybody who possesses the power of dragons instantly becomes a Chick Magnet because apparently, chicks dig power. He even describes to Issei that one of his past users slept with a lot of women.
  • Church Militant: It seems the church in this setting has special squads of assassins and exorcists to deal with the supernatural.
  • Clothing Damage: When Issei first gets his powers the Fallen Angel that's attacking him gets what little clothes she's wearing blown off. And then he gets Dress Break, the ultimate move in a Rating Game where it outright got banned after the first game was over.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Asia shows signs of it in volume 3, Rias as well. Then... Xenovia, Akeno, Irina, and Koneko just slightly.
  • Competitive Balance: The rating games have this format. Take note however that depending on the individual this could change. For example giving someone fast a rook would make them a Lightning Bruiser instead.
  • Cool Big Sis: Rias and Akeno are described as this towards the entire school.
  • Cool Versus Awesome: Fights between mythological groups radiate this trope.
  • Crazy Prepared: Issei's fight against Phenix is nothing but this. Armed with the cross and holy water while having your left arm become dragon-like (which then won't harm Issei) against a guy who can regenerate wounds? Yeah.
  • Crucified Hero Shot: Asia in episode 4
  • 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 out side of my expectations".
  • Dancing Theme: The anime ending theme. Ye gods, the ending theme!
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Who knew.. Everyone in Ria's group except Issei has this. Rias is the head of her household since her brother became defacto 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 was executed for killing her master, Akeno is a half fallen angel due to her father being one and her mother 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 which they branded her a witch.
  • Darkest Hour: Volume 11. To wit, Hades starts a war in hell, 75% of Ophis' power was taken from her thus 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.
  • 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, and Akeno for Volume 7.
  • Defeat by Modesty: Issei's dress break invokes this, sure its mainly used on females but usually its not modesty that defeats them its the heavy handed blasting coming from Issei or one of his teammates as person in question covers their naughty bits.
  • Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Odin pays a visit to Issei's house and was hanging out with Azazel.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Before Rias revives Issei.
  • Dirty Coward: After repeatedly grinding the fact that she played with Isse's heart and how his cherished first date with her was a "boring waste of time" into his face, Yuuma STILL reverts to her adorably innocent human form to beg for her life as Isse is about to strike the killing blow. She even sinks so low as to show him the armband he bought her, proclaiming how precious it is to her. Fortunately for Yuuma, Issei, even now, still fondly holds onto those warm memories as cherished moments of love and happiness, and could not bring himself to kill her. Not so fortunately, this only served to anger Rias further for playing with her little-brother's heart like a violin.....
  • 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 is she taking off.
  • Disney Death: The climax of episode 10 has Koneko getting blown up by Raiser's Queen during a Rating's Game and in episode 11 she fades away in a shower of sparkles. Rias explains soon after that she's just been sent to a holding area until the game ends
  • 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.
  • Downer Ending: This is how the past Boosted Gear users lives ended according to a lot of people, foremost being Ddraig. Issei so far, while so far dead, had a happy life to the point, Ddraig refers to him as the greatest Red Dragon Emperor ever despite being the weakest.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Averted with Issei. At the start he was treated as a joke by even low tier fallen angels but once he started getting stronger opponents took him more and more seriously.
  • Engagement Challenge: Ok so we knew Rias is engaged to the Phenex household, so Issei when comes to rescue her it becomes this to the people watching it unfold.
  • Everyone Can See It: It is so painfully obvious Rias likes Issei that her father acknowledges him as his future son in law... Same thing applies for Akeno later on, and any savvy reader notices Asia's liking of Issei from the first chapters after she's introduced.
  • Fan Service: The New 13 OVA. Hard to even know where to begin on this one.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Humans, devils, fallen angels, angels, Norse mythology, Greek mythology, dragons, a breast god, anything you can think of, it's in here.
  • Femme Fatale: Yuuma Amano.
  • Fiery Redhead: Rias in a nutshell, although her power is actually destruction.
  • First-Episode Resurrection
  • First Kiss: Rias steals Issei's first kiss and later on, Asia and Akeno's first kiss are also from Issei.
  • Five-Man Band: There are quite a few examples in this series.
  • 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 she's introduced it's mentioned that Rias is rumoured to be Scandinavian and after the Bedmate Reveal in episode 2 Issei's mother specifically states her son's in bed with a foreign girl.
  • Foreshadowing: In the manga, the "Bishop" piece is suspiciously never mentioned or discussed before Asia, a religious girl that Issei wants to be friends with, appears. It's obvious she will become the Bishop of the group as soon Issei begins to try to make Asia join Rias' group.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: you can see Issei's penis in the beginning of episode 2 when his mother closes the door. Funnily enough, this gets removed in the blu-ray version.
  • "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.
  • Gainaxing
  • God Is Dead: Micheal'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 dark sword.
  • Gondor Calls for Aid: When Hell gets invaded by Hades and the Chaos 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.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs: What pretty much happened with Issei VS Sairaorg.
  • 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 fistbump variation just before they go to their separate positions in their first Rating Game.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: Subverted Hard. 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 Maou and the daughter of a leader in the Fallen Angel faction. He even eventually muched up to Vali who had the lineage of the original Maou 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 Seeker: Issei's dream upon entering high school. Didn't quite work out, what with not being able to get a girlfriend let alone the many required for a harem. Rias promises he can get one if he does a good job as a demon. Of course, the series itself is a harem romance.
  • Hearing Voices: Special sacred gears usually have something sealed within them Issei's has a red welsh dragon named Ddraig.
  • Heroic BSOD: Everybody in the Occult Research Club after Issei dies.
  • High Altitude Battle: The first fight of Volume 7 has everybody facing Loki in the air.
  • Holy Burns Evil: If only by technicality; demons can't get near anything related to angels like holy ground or people with angelical powers, but good-hearted demons like Issei don't get immunity.
  • Horny Devils: The main reason Issei is cool with becoming a demon is that Rias tells him he can use it to get laid.
  • Humongous Mecha: Azazel makes one from Sirzechs request. He builds it underneath the swimming pool of the school named Maouga.
  • I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!: This is practically how Issei works.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Asia, definitely.
  • I Can Explain: Sure you can Issei... Why is there a red headed naked girl in your bed... later on why are multiple girls now living in our home??
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Twice within the first episode. In the books, Issei's been impaled more than Jenna Jameson.
    • Issei finally gets to dish out several simultaneously in the first ratings game using "Gift" with Yuuto's ability to summon a Field of Blades under a group of Raiser's pieces
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: There are the 3 main factions Devil, Angel, Fallen-Angels, and then there are the dragons who decided not to align with any of the 3 and are strong enough to enforce that fact.
  • I Was Just Passing Through: Vali invokes this from time to time. Sometimes however, he really does have an agenda.
  • Jaw Drop: Tanninim 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.
  • Jerkass: {{spoiler|Ria's Ria's fiance, Riser and Matsuda and Motohama, Issei's two friends who start spreading rumors about him because Issei is so close to many beautiful women.
  • Jumped At the Call: More like sprinted towards the call but Issei definitely fits.
  • Kiai: Koneko uses them, subverted since she's not Hot-Blooded at all, rather than screaming it's a quiet "eh!" then whatever she just punched goes flying
  • Knight Templar: Quite a few with the most notable being the Old Devils Faction and the Hero Faction both absolutely convinced their 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.
  • Light Is Not Good: Fallen angels can still use the power of the light, and they're in hell fighting with the devils.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: At the start, there was only the Occult Research Club, then they added fallen angels, devils, God and his angels, dragons, exorcists, fallen exorcists, Valhalla, pretty any mythology you can think of, it's here.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Issei and his non-demonic pals, Matsuda and Motohama
  • 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.
  • Lover Tug of War: Poor Issei sometimes.
  • Lucky Charms Title: If you want to be totally accurate, it should be "D×D".
    • Which becomes a Title Drop when you find out that Great Red is the current "D×D" known as "Dragon of Dragons". And then comes full circle when Issei becomes a "D×D" who's still in high school because Great Red used his powers with Ophis to create Issei's body.
  • Marshmallow Hell: Its through hell that Issei finds his heaven.
  • Melee a Trois: There are three different powers currently in this setting: God and his angels, the fallen angels, and the devils.
  • Meido: Grafia, head maid to Rias' Brother's household Also she's his wife.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Rias and Akeno, they have Boobs of Steel, considered the 2 idols of school, and are incredibly beautiful.
  • 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).
  • Mood Whiplash: 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.
    • Volume 12 starts out depressing after what happened in the previous volume. And then, it's now at Issei's perspective of the story where the first few things that he says is that he can't even make out with Rias anymore with his current spirit form.
  • Name's the Same: Sister Asia Argento
* Naughty Tentacles: In a Fanservice episode that nearly outdoes even To Love Ru in its fan-servicing, which is really saying something, the New 13 OVA checks off all the boxes: pervy mad scientist, bikini-clad bouncy busty beauties and lolis in an outdoor field, Issei in the hero's shoes conveniently thrown in the middle of several bikini beauties at boob level, a strip-down spell, squirmy tentacles, the stripped-down beauties being devoured by a monster created from bras panties and bikinis, the monster having sentience through the pervy mad scientist and talking (really, he talks and it's both hilarious and weirdly scary and menacing) and then Issei summoning a mystical strike that rescues the girls and sends a hail of bras and panties across the field. And this is just a partial description.
  • Nice Guy: Perverted as he is, Issei is kind, courageous and very protective of his harem and friends.
    • Kiba and Gasper definitely qualify too.
    • Not to mention Rias' brother Sirzechs and Archangel Michael. Azazel's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, however.
    • Nice Girl: At least half of the girls in the Occult Research Club qualify for this, but especially Rias and Asia.
  • Oblivious to Love: Issei wants a harem, but doesn't notice the one he has.
  • Older Than They Look: Rias sometimes refers to Issei as a child in the novel, suggesting she isn't as young as she looks.. also considering Devil's can live for 10,000+ years...
    • Subverted since Rias really is as young as she looks.
  • Old School Building: Where the Occult Clubroom is located.
  • Our Angels Are Different/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 media, but Issei's dragon is a Welsh dragon. Not something you see every day.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Simply put, the entire Occult Research Club is overshadowed by Issei. While all of them are useful in their own right, Issei is by far the most powerful member and even in earlier volumes he is always the one to fight and defeat the Arc Villain. You sometimes get the impression the club would be just fine if Issei was the only member... then you remember that none of them would get very far without Rias.
    • The Student Council is also overshadowed by the Occult Research Club.
  • Peace Conference: Happens in the fourth volume. It was successful, however there is a certain faction who doesn't want in.
  • Panty Shot
  • Pillow Fight: Rias and Akeno engage in this at the start of the fifth volume. This is also how Issei finds out that his house got renovated into a six-floor mansion.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Koneko.
  • The Power of Hate: The Maouga runs on it as it's power source.
  • The Power of Love: Issei is powered by this... but mostly he's powered by lust.
  • Powered Armor: Yes it actually does exist in the series; Issei's first dragon form is basically it.
  • 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.
    • The devils also have a strength tier with ultimate being the highest level and low level devil 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 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 surpressing her.
  • Power Perversion Potential: Why else would Issei invent Dress Break during his training time.
  • Peeping Tom: The first scene in the novels involves Issei and his friends Matsuda and Motohama peeking at the girls locker room.
  • 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 Goku 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.
  • 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. Subverted in that they often do housework.
  • Radial Ass-Kicking: 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, into a six-floor mansion overnight.
  • Really Gets Around: Issei wants to, Raizer already has, and finally Issei's Mentor Azazel had one in the 1000s harem not women.
  • Red Baron: A lot. Generally all the high level fighters have some sort of terrifying nickname. Funnily enough Issei is called the Breast Emperor Dragon which brings Driag no small amount of agony.
  • School Idol: Rias, Akeno, Souna, and Tsubaki in that order.
  • Sentai: Maou Sentai Satanranger!
  • Sequel Hook: The mere mention of Vanishing Dragon (Vali), made everyone jump for joy and wanted a sequel to the series.
  • Shout-Out: Numerous. Issei activates his Sacred Gear by shouting "Kamehameha!" and his first client was hoping for a female demon he could dress up as Yuki Nagato.

Familiar Master: Tsukaima, Getto da ze!
Issei: Sprite Dragon...I choose y-!

  • Someday This Will Come in Handy: Back in volume 4, Sirzechs asks Issei what would happen if Issei used Gift on Rias' 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' breasts shrinking.
  • Spank the Cutie: No, Rias doesn't get spanked; she's the one spanking you if you do anything stupid. Just ask Issei or Kiba.
  • Story-Breaker Power: Ophis being the strongest character displays zero interest in fighting because if she ever went serious she would destroy every opponent easily and thus founds fighting with anybody except the Great Red pointless. Even when having her powers weakened to around 25-50% of her powers she still is double the strength of the two heavenly dragons. Also Son Goku who forced the entire Hero Faction to retreat and did so easily plus blocked the True Longinus with one finger.
  • Superpower 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 Issei could double his own power by two every ten seconds. Gasper could stop time. 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 a Attack Reflector.
    • Also besides sacred gear 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 descendent of Lucifer thus he has great magic power that further boasts the power of his sacred gear by allowing him to feed his magic power for Juggernut Drive which allows him to be the only person that could use this ability without drawback.
  • Take That: The "Familiar Master" in Episode 7, an middle-age man who dresses and talks like Ash Ketchum/Satoshi is a not-too-kind jab at the Pokémon fandom, particularly adults who refuse to "let go."
    • Ironically, the author admits that he's a fan of Pokémon in the volume 8 afterword, and his artist told his editor to make that story.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: Rias naturally.
    • Now now don't forget Akeno.
  • 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 Raiser, their conversation lasts for a few minutes while Ddraig is counting the number of seconds till Balance Breaker is up.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Chaos 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 devil 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.
  • The Alliance: The Christian faction as a whole (includes angels, fallen-angels, and devils).
  • The Chosen Many: For something to be so rare, there sure are a lot of Sacred Gear users in the setting. And that's not counting the, according to Word of God, fifteen Longinus users, one of which being Issei's Boosted Gear.
  • There Is Only One Bed: Rias sleeps naked in Issei's bed and at that point, the latter doesn't love the former.
  • Those Two Guys/Bromantic Foil: Matsuda and Motohama
  • Torpedo Tits: The exiled devil in episode 3 fires lasers from her nipples.
  • Tournament Arc: How a Rating Game works.
  • Training from Hell: Rias' training of Issei is nothing but this. Later on, he gets subjected to this by Taninim who trains him literally in hell.
  • True Companions: The Occult Club.
  • Tug Lover War: A mild example in the opening credits of Akeno VS Asia with Issei as the prize.
  • Two-Teacher School: The only teachers who are even active in this school are Azazel and Rossweisse.
  • 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.
  • Unprovoked Pervert Payback: Despite numerous amounts of Fan Service, this show averts it. Hell, even Ise 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.
  • Unwitting Pawn: The Occult Research Club to Vali in Volume 7 seeing as the latter wanted Fenrir on his side, thereby fighting alongside them, and the Hero Faction in general to Hades.
  • Valkyries: They exist in the universe, as Odin is a character within the story Later on one of those Valkyries becomes Ria's new rook, Rossweiss.
  • What Does She See in Him?: It has been stated through out the story from people wondering why Rias and Asia are close to Issei later on Koneko, A church assassin named Zelnovia, an angel named Irena, Akeno, Ravel Phenex. If only they knew the crap he went through for the girls.
  • Wham! Line: What Kokabiel said to the entire group which is God Is Dead. So much so it caused Xenovia a Heroic BSOD.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Issei's Alarm clock.
  • 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 about his dying on his first date issues.
  • Winged Humanoid: Everyone that's on one of the three factions. The Angels and their Fallen former comrades have the feathery kind (normal angels have white wings while those of Fallen Angels are black), Demon wings are more bat like or perhaps Draconic.
  • Would Hit a Girl: Pretty much almost every male in this series have no problems fighting against women at all.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: Well, the Rating Game is a team battle that involves adjusting the strategies in response to the opponents actions.
  • You Are Worth Hell: Issei went through a lot of crap to rescue Asia. It's a Long Story.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Ddraig isn't taking the nickname Breast Dragon everyone gave him very well due to how Issei uses his power.
  1. ↑ Nude I might add
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