List of High School DxD characters
The light novel, manga, and anime series High School DxD features a diverse cast of characters. The visuals of the characters were designed by Miyama-Zero and their stories were created by Ichiei Ishibumi. The stories follow the adventures of Issei Hyoudou, a perverted high school student who is killed by his first date, but reborn as a devil to serve Rias Gremory, a crimson-haired school beauty who heads the Occult Research Club. Issei, Rias, and the club members interact with various groups and organizations, some of which are run by devils who compete against them in sanctioned combat matches called Rating Games, where the characters have been assigned positions akin to chess pieces.
Creation and conception
Author Ichiei Ishibumi had previously worked on a horror genre series two years before publishing the first light novel for High School DxD. In the volume 1 afterword, he mentions that he changed his writing style, and wanted to develop one in the school-life, love-comedy, battle, and fantasy genre. His main character Issei was made into a lecherous guy at the request of his editor. For the first volume, he made Rias a second lead character and heroine, and Asia to be the second heroine. Some of his characters are loosely referenced from the Bible, non-fiction books, and mythology. He created a world where the war between the three main factions is over, and where many famous angels and devils have already ceased to exist. He also added characters and legendary beasts from a variety of places from Norse mythology to Japanese yokai. Ishibumi named the Four Great Devils after characters from the Gundam media franchise. For example, Sirzechs Lucifer is a combination of Char Aznable and Zechs Merquise, and [|Millicas] is named after Merquise and Aznable's real names Milliardo and Casval.In Volume 5 of the light novels, Ishibumi writes that he likes to pair the main characters: Rias and Akeno as the big sister duo, Asia and Xenovia are the church-related duo who become friends, Gasper and Koneko are the young first-years, and Issei and Yuto are the guys.
When Rias' English voice actress Jamie Marchi was writing the dub script, she noted it was a breast-centric show, even noting that they have sound effects for when they move. She saw the main heroine Rias was calm and stern and a character that she isn't used to playing. She also liked giving the side characters more personality. Ishibumi also agrees with the appeal of the characters' oppai especially in later volumes of the light novels, and had planned to make the heroines more erotic, especially in the side story volumes that focus on comedy.
Main characters
Most of the protagonists serve as members of Kuoh Academy's Occult Research Club, a team of ten devils, an angel and a dragon which is a front for Rias Gremory's team of devils. They are involved in various devil activities from making contracts with humans to participating in Rating Games and other conflicts that involve the school. At the end of volume 4 of the light novels, fallen angel leader [|Azazel] becomes the club's adviser, and has the girls live at Issei Hyoudou's home.Issei Hyoudou
Issei Hyodo is the viewpoint character and the main protagonist of High School DxD. Introduced as a second-year high school student at Kuoh Academy, he has a reputation for being lecherous. Raynare, posing as Yuma Amano, goes out on a date with him. However, Issei realizes too late that the date was a trap set up by Raynare, and is fatally stabbed in the stomach. After he is revived by Rias Gremory, he becomes a devil and her servant, where he joins the school's Occult Research Club. Ishibumi describes him as "a guy who loves girls and is really stupid".Issei demonstrates great potential as his resurrection required Rias to consume all eight pawns of her allotted team. Learning that he can assemble his own team in the future, he aspires to become a Harem King. He tries to protect and help his friends, some of whom fall in love with him, but while he enjoys their lustful affections, he is also scared of them and doesn't want to get serious with them because of the trauma suffered from Raynare. As he progresses, he becomes a middle-rank devil, and acquires a familiar named Skithblathnir. He later reaches the upper-ranks, with Asia, Xenovia, Ravel and Rossweisse as part of his group.
Issei's main item in combat is the a Sacred Gear which initially takes the form of a gauntlet on his left arm. Rias reveals that the Gear is one of the Thirteen Longinus items; as it houses [|Ddraig], the Red Dragon Emperor. His abilities with the Gear include: Boost enables him to double his powers every ten seconds; lets him amplify his ally's ability; and fires a beam against his enemies. He can be promoted to use additional abilities associated with higher ranked pieces, either by reaching an opponent's headquarters during a Rating Game, or with the permission of the King. Over the course of the series, he becomes more powerful and acquires abilities and powers such as Juggernaut Drive, Balance Breaker Scale Mail, ; Dividing Wyvern Fairy and Longinus Smasher. He also has not-so-serious techniques that he uses against his female opponents including: obliterates a girl's clothes after previously touching her; and listens to her inner thoughts as if her breasts are talking.
Rias Gremory
Rias Gremory is the main female protagonist of the series; she revives Issei after he is killed by Raynare. A tall red-haired devil with a voluptuous body, she is a third-year top-ranking high school student at Kuoh Academy; she is also the leader of the Occult Research Club, which is a front for her devil team, of which she is the King. Known as the Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess and the heiress to the Gremory family of devils, she goes to a normal high school where she does not have to flaunt her status.She develops feelings for Issei over the course of the series. In the storyline where she is to be Riser Phoenix's girlfriend, she resigns her Rating Game against him in order to save him; however, after Issei subsequently defeats Riser, she kisses him and moves into his family's home. She does not mind being intimate with Issei, but gets upset when other girls want to steal him away. Later, Rias' mother, Venelana, encourages her to push her relationship further with Issei, but gets upset when Issei could not call her by her name. Eventually, Issei finally professes his love for her and calls Rias by her first name instead of her President title. She cries tears of joy and tells him that she feels the same way and the two officially become a couple. Though it seems none of the other girls have given up on Issei. She has also shown more tolerance towards Issei's dreams of becoming Harem King, even allowing everyone to make dates with Issei with the understanding that he will always return to her afterwards. At her graduation, Issei proposes to Rias; which Rias accepts, becoming one of his girlfriends.
Her brother is one of the Four Great Devils, Lucifer, and both of them possess the Power of Destruction that was inherited by their mother, who came from the House of Bael, which are famous for that power. Rias eventually masters a new finishing attack during her training with Akeno. She later leaves for Romania with Kiba and Azazel to know more about Gasper's ability. In volume 16 she finally shows her new move, called Extinguished Star; Rias manipulates her Power of Destruction into a compression of unimaginable amounts of demonic power; takes form of an enormous sphere with a mixture of crimson and black aura radiating from inside of it that launches it toward her enemies in a slow velocity. It has the ability of a magnetic force; pulling the enemies towards it and get disintegrate by the latter.
Asia Argento
While being raised as a nun of the Catholic Church, Asia Argento, a blonde-haired girl, develops her abilities to heal people. However, Diodora Astaroth injures himself and has Asia heal him. As a result, Asia is excommunicated from the church. When she moves to Japan, she befriends Issei, but is abducted by Raynare who removes and steals her healing rings and kills her. After a lengthy battle, Rias revives her to become a devil and serve as her bishop. She moves into the Hyoudou residence and transfers to their school. Despite her devil identity, Asia tries to continue her faith, although whenever she prays or reads the Bible, she initially gets a severe headache. She possesses a set of Sacred Gear rings called.Asia is strongly attracted to Issei as her first friend; she is jealous whenever he acts perverted towards the other girls, asking that he redirect his actions towards her. This makes Issei conflicted between wanting to protect her innocence and indulging in her affections. Her familiar is a baby Sprite Dragon named She later becomes a Dragon User, and after Rias and Akeno graduate, she becomes the club's new president.
Akeno Himejima
Akeno Himejima is the black-haired vice-president of the Occult Research Club; she wears her hair in a long ponytail. Issei describes her as an ideal Japanese woman with a pretty face that is always smiling, and along with Rias, make up the two great big sisters that are idolized at the school. She exhibits a gentle personality, but during combat, becomes highly sadistic.. As Rias's queen, she possesses a variety of abilities, preferring elemental attacks such as lightning strikes. She transforms her costume to that of a shrine priestess and assumes the nickname Priestess of Thunder.Later on, she helps draw off energy from Issei's Boosted Gear by sucking on his finger, and flirts more openly with him. She is later revealed to be the daughter of the fallen angel leader [|Baraqiel] and a human shrine maiden. After showing Issei her mixed wings, she is concerned he will hate her, but he accepts her, after which she acts more affectionately towards him, saying that she does not mind being third. Eventually, Issei convinces her to add her fallen angel aspects to her abilities, creating the Holy Lightning attack. She gets in a conflict with her father in volume 7 that causes her to act unstable and fragile, but Issei helps her reconcile with him.
Over the course of the series, Akeno continues to progress her abilities. She acquires Fallen Angel Mode, which increases her Holy Lightning abilities, and passes the promotion exam for the middle-class devil rank. In a later volume, she creates Raikouryuu, an Eastern dragon made of Holy Lightning.