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Hero Overview
Synopsis
“
I'm going to become a Harem-King!
„
~ Issei Hyoudou shouting out his dreams.
Issei Hyoudou is the main male protagonist of the light novel and anime series High School DxD. He is a second-year student at Kuoh Academy and a member of the school's "Perverted Trio", a trio of the most perverted men in the entire student body. After being resurrected as a Devil by Rias Gremory, he becomes a member of the Occult Research Club, and his rank in Rias' peerage is Pawn. His goal is to one day rise in rank to that of a High-Class Devil so that he can gather his own servants and create his own harem, becoming a "Harem King".
He is voiced by Yuki Kaiji in the Japanese version of the anime, and by Scott Freeman and Josh Grelle in the English version of the anime.
Issei is a 17-year old high-school student of average height with short brown hair and light brown eyes. Following his training with Tannin in Volume 5, he gained a more fatter and toned build.
While he has worn various outfits throughout the series, his most commonly worn outfit is the Kuoh Academy boys' school uniform, which consists of a blazer (more commonly black, although in other media is shown with a tinge of purple or grey, with white accents) over a white, long-sleeved dress shirt with black highlights with a black ribbon on the collar, matching black pants, and brown dress shoes. However, Issei's uniform differs in the fact that he wears a red T-shirt underneath his open dress shirt and blazer, and wears blue and white sneakers in place of dress shoes.
From the end of Volume 2 to the beginning of Volume 12, Issei's left arm was transformed into that of a Dragon. In order for it to appear human, a ritual would be performed where Rias or Akeno would suck the power of the Dragon out of it, allowing it to appear human for a few days. After gaining a new body in Volume 12 through the combined efforts of Great Red and Ophis, he is now able to freely transform any part of his body into that of a Dragon.
Personality
“
When you're grabbing boobs, you're grabbing life!
„
~ Issei to his friends Matsuda and Motohama
One of the many personality traits that define Issei is his ongoing perverted nature and his obsession with women's breasts. This has caused him to be instantly labelled as a pervert among the girls of Kuoh Academy and has gained him notoriety for being one of the members of Kuoh Academy's Perverted Trio, alongside his friends Matsuda and Motohama.
Despite his pervertedness, Issei is kind, courageous, and unwaveringly determined of wanting to protect those who are important to him despite almost dying by the hands of his opponents. He's also very caring, "putting his nose on other peoples business" as he helped Yuuto, Koneko, and Akeno overcome their fear and hatred of their mournful past. Due to this, he gained strong friendship from his comrades and affection from the following girls; Rias, Akeno, Koneko, Asia, Xenovia, Irina, Ravel, Kuroka and Rossweisse. He is, however, oblivious to the feelings of the girls around him (save for Rias after his confession), often believing they are simply teasing him. Even with Rias' family telling him to use the same titles for them as Rias (Father, Mother, Brother, etc.) and other mentions of engagement activities, he still remains the same. This is due to his trauma with Raynare.
After his murder by Raynare, Issei had developed a fear of admitting his feelings to the girls, as he thought it would cause them to turn their backs on him. He acknowledged that this would never happen, but it was still an intense fear. However, by Volume 10, that fear had been overcome. Even with knowledge that the girls do have romantic affection for him, he still has problems acknowledging some of their ongoing rivalries, an example being who is the one to sit on his lap.
In battle, Issei is sometimes very stubborn, and due to his emotions, he often charges ahead towards his enemies without a second thought whenever his comrades are insulted, treated badly, or easily defeated. Azazel has stated that it is one of Issei's bad habits. Lately, he has started to become more tactical in his battles, using technique-type strategies to defeat opponents, as shown when he used the abilities of the Wyverns in a unique way to defeat Euclid.
Another sign of his kind nature is that despite wanting to lose his virginity, Issei refuses to take advantage of women when they are upset, even if they themselves are willing to. This happened when Akeno appeared in front of him naked and wanted to have sex to forget about her sad past and her father. However, Issei refused, knowing it will just hurt her more, and put her clothes back on and hugged her to comfort her. He was also disgusted when Riser molested his Queen in front of him just to make him jealous. In spite of all his dense perversions, Issei has a huge heart and cherishes women as people.
Attributes
Powers
Devil-Dragon Attributes : As a reincarnated devil, Issei possess all common powers to a devil such as superhuman physical stats, demonic power, flight, in addition to the ability to use promotion and dragonification due to his position as a pawn and a humanoid dragon.
Demonic Power : Issei has all the powers and abilities common to Devils, including the power to cast spells.
Dragon Shot :
Issei destroys a mountain with his dragon shot
One of Issei's signature moves. Issei fires a beam of energy by concentrating his magical powers. This move is usually used in tandem with the Boosted Gear to increase its destructive powers. He has also developed a small scale Dragon Shot that is meant for knocking out humans while fending off the members of the Hero Faction who are humans. After his fight with Sirzechs, being inspired by the way he uses his Power of Destruction, Issei starts working on how to redirect his Dragon Shot by moving them in different directions, first using it in Volume 9 against Cao Cao and again in Volume 12 during his battle against Jabberwocky.
Dress Break : The second of Issei's signature move which he uses mainly against females. This moves allows him to strip a female's clothes after coming in contact with them by concentrating his magical energy on the clothes and then by snapping his finger to trigger it.
Bilingual : Issei's third signature move. Bilingual gives him the ability to talk to the breasts of all females. It is a helpful technique as it helps Issei learn his opponents' plans and strategies by asking their breasts; however due to complaints from female members from other peerages, Rias banned Issei from using this technique in Rating Games. This move however has a weakness which was shown in the Rating Game between Sairaorg when his bishop Coriana Andrealphus started to strip in front of Issei and instead of telling him battle plans her breast told him what she was going to strip next thus hindering Bilingual.
Issei promotes to rook to increase his strength and defence
Being a Pawn, Issei can use promotion to temporarily gain the traits of a Queen, Rook, Knight or Bishop. In Volume 8, after Ajuka Beelzebub rewrote Issei's Evil Pieces, Issei can now use Promotion anytime and anywhere without the King's permission.
Knight: When he promotes to knights, Issei gains increased speed and mobility, enabling him to perform high-speed attacks and maneuvers. However, his main weakness is his low defense, making him vulnerable to powerful attacks if he is not careful.
Bishop: When he promotes to Bishop, Issei gains enhanced magical abilities which he can use to conjure up a multitude of spells (offensive, healing, etc.). However, more powerful spells consume most of his magical power, which takes a long time to regain, forcing him to use his power carefully or risk becoming vulnerable to physical attacks.
Rook: When he promotes to rook, Issei gains increased superhuman strength, leading to high offense and defense. However, he is not very quick, and can get beaten easily by a high-speed opponent.
Queen: As a Queen, Issei possess all the characteristics of Rooks, Knights, and Bishops, making this promotion the most balanced as well as the most powerful.
Dragonification: After sacrificing his left arm, and having it transformed into that of a dragon's in Volume 2, Issei's left arm was immune to damage taken from touching Holy objects. In Volume 14, due to his new body being made from the Great Red's flesh Issei can now freely turn any part of his body into that of a Dragon, by concentrating his thoughts on the specified body part. He first demonstrates the technique by turning his right arm into that of a Dragon in order to combat three Magicians who were sent to attack Kuoh Academy. It is extremely powerful, as shown when he easily breaks through their defense magic and knocks one of them out with a single punch. Issei has also been able to grow Dragon wings from his back. Unfortunately, once the transformation occurs, he is unable to return it to human form, unless he gets the Dragon energy drained from the transformed body part by either Rias or Akeno.
Supernatural Physical & Mental Stats: As a reincarnated devil and as well as a humanoid dragon, Issei possess various superhuman physical attributes along with an enhanced sensory system
Inhuman Strength :
Issei easily wields the giant Mjölnir
In the beginning of the series, Issei's strength was considered to be below average compared to others. After his training with Rias and the others in the mountain, Issei when using his Boosted Gear shows that he could go on level with Riser's servant. After his training with Tannin, Issei's strength is further enhanced along with his daily training. His strength is further shown when he fought against Rizevim Lucifer who is a super devil. It is also stated various times in the light novel that his power is equal to that of an Ultimate Class devil. Azazel also stated that out of the young devils that there is only one person who can fight Issei head on that being the former strongest young devil Sairaorg Bael further displaying Issei's strength.
Inhuman Speed: After Issei was reincarnated into a devil, his speed was increased to superhuman level. Issei stated that he can easily do a marathon when he reaches his peak during the night. Through the use of Promotion, Issei can further increase his speed. In his Balance Breaker state, he can use the booster to further increase his speed.
Inhuman Durability:
Issei tanks an explosion point blank range
Issei was originally very weak and vulnerable, easily hurt by the simplest attack. After his training with Tannin, where he was forced to survive Tannin's continuous assault, Issei's durability greatly improves, along with his daily training further enhanced his durability to the point where his body could withstand continuous usage of the Boosted Gear which he couldn't do so in the beginning. In fact, Issei's durability has been proven several times against opponents like Sairaorg Bael, Cao Cao, Grendel and many others.
Inhuman Stamina: Issei originally possesses average stamina. After being reincarnated into a Devil along with his daily training with Rias, Issei obtains more stamina to use the Boosted Gear. Following his training with Tannin in the Underworld, Issei obtains even more stamina that he could used when in Balance Breaker. He eventually obtains enough stamina to activate his Scale Mail without countdown.
Heightened Senses:
The world from Issei's perspective
As a reincarnated devil, Issei naturally has all of his senses enhanced to superhuman level. Among all of his senses, the two most notable are his sense of vision, and his sense of hearing.
Accelerated Recovery Rate: Thanks to his demonic powers, Issei is capable of healing at a rate far faster than a human. He was able to heal from fatal injuries over a night with the help of Rias.
Flight: While Issei still lack the ability to fly using his Devil wings, Issei being a former Dragon can fly using his Dragon wings.
Abilities
Master Hand-to-hand Combatant: Issei was originally unskilled in fighting but after the training with Koneko and Kiba, Issei manages to obtain basic hand-to-hand combat skills. After his training with Tannin, Issei becomes more skilful in combat, having to learn how to survive Tannin's assault. In fact Issei's prowess in hand-to-hand combat is shown when he went toe-to-toe with Sairaorg Bael, a fellow master martial artist in a fist fight.
Survival Skills: Because of his training under Tannin, Issei has developed survival skills.
Stealth: Issei has also learned how to mask his presence from people.
Ninjutsu: Thanks to his ninja training, Issei has become proficient in using shurikens and presumably making shadow clones.
Equipments
Boosted Gear :
Issei summons his Boosted Gear
Issei's Sacred Gear and main weapon. The Boosted Gear is one of the 13 Longinus which holds the spirit of the Welsh Dragon, the Red Dragon Emperor, Ddraig, one of the Heavenly Dragons. It is said to have the power to kill a God when fully mastered. Boosted Gear takes the form of a red gauntlet on the wielder's left hand that has the ability to Boost the user's power every 10 seconds without limit, and its sub-ability can Transfer the multiplied power to a being or object, it can even be used on certain parts of the user's body such as the eyes for enhanced vision. Later it gains ability of Penetrate to bypass any defensive abilities (including Rizevim's Sacred Gear Canceller) that would otherwise prevent his attacks from landing, however it does not negate the deactivation of Balance Breaker. Penetrate's effects can also be channeled through other parts of the body, such as the eyes, making it capable to see through anything even women's clothing.
Boosted Gear: Scale Mail :
Issei activates his complete Balance Breaker
The Balance Breaker of Boosted Gear that creates a Red Dragon Armor and Issei's primary battle form. Issei first activated his imperfect version of Scale Mail in Volume 2 by making a pact with Ddraig by giving his left hand to the latter. During his first battle against Vali, Issei used a bracelet given to him by Azazel which allowed him to use the imperfect version of Scale Mail for less than 15 minutes. Issei completed his Balance Breaker during his fight against Kuroka, poking Rias' breast to trigger the evolution. From this point, Issei can Boost without the 10 second limit. At the back of his armor there are two rocket boosters that gives a temporary boost of speed and flight. After the activation of the Juggernaut Drive, Issei's Scale Mail gained a pair of retractable Dragon Wings with pteranodon-like claws that he can use as arms.
Heroes