Issei Hyoudou is the main male protagonist of the light novel and anime series High School DxD. He is a perverted but kind-hearted third-year high school student who gets revived as a devil after being killed by a fallen angel.

Issei is the current host of the Boosted Gear, one of the 13 Longinus Sacred Gears that contains the spirit of the legendary Welsh Dragon Ddraig. This makes him the Red Dragon Emperor and eternal rival to Vali Lucifer, the White Dragon Emperor.

As a reincarnated devil serving under Rias Gremory, Issei was originally her Pawn due to the intense power of Ddraig, which required 8 Pawn pieces to revive him. But through intense training and unlocking new abilities like his crimson Scale Mail armor, Issei eventually rose to become a High-Class Devil deserving of his own independent peerage.

His ultimate dream is to become a "Harem King" by having his own reverse harem filled with beautiful girls who truly love him. To this end, he has proposed to and become engaged to multiple girls, including Rias, Akeno Himejima, Xenovia Quarta, Asia Argento, and others.

Personality & Appearance

Issei is a typical perverted teenage boy who is obsessed with women's breasts and one day having a harem of beautiful girls. He has zero issues openly proclaiming and acting on these desires, earning him the nickname "Chichiryuutei" (Breast Dragon Emperor).

Despite this, Issei is extremely kind, selfless, and courageous. He always risks himself to protect his loved ones, like Rias and other friends in the Occult Research Club. He detests any form of cruelty and will punish those who bully or abuse others.

However, Issei initially struggled with intense fears of women rejecting or betraying him due to his traumatic death experience. But through the support of the ORC girls who loved him unconditionally, he gradually overcame these issues.

Issei is also known for his sheer tenacity. He pushes himself to the limits through brutal training to become stronger and make his "Harem King" dream a reality. He respects those with powerful beliefs and desires to surpass their limits, driving him to keep improving.

In his normal human appearance, Issei is an average-looking teenage boy with short, spiky brown hair and brown eyes. After gaining his new body, he can freely transform parts of himself into a dragon-like appearance with red scales.

Powers & Abilities

Demonic Power: As a devil, Issei can reinforce his natural abilities with demonic power. Boosted gear's ability allows him to multiply this power infinitely.

Boosted Gear (Longinus): This is Issei's signature Sacred Gear, which contains Ddraig. It can double Issei's power every 10 seconds with "Boost," transfer that power with "Transfer," and bypass defenses with "Penetrate."

Boosted Gear Scale Mail: Boosted Gear's Balance Breaker creates a crimson dragon armor that drastically increases Issei's powers, letting him fight High-Class devils and injure gods.

Illegal Move Triaina: Triana lets Scale Mail split into three forms based on Evil Pieces: an extremely fast Knight form, a heavily armored Rook form, and a blaster Bishop form.

Cardinal Crimson Promotion: Scale Mail's unstable Queen form that incorporates all three traits of the Evil Pieces. Its full abilities are still unknown.

Dividing Wyvern Fairies: Red and white Wyvern familiars created from Ddraig and Albion that can divide/reflect attacks or boost/transfer power to Issei.

Diabolos Dragon God: By releasing Ophis' power, this upgrades Scale Mail with ∞ symbols, allowing Issei to overwhelm god-class beings briefly before suffering intense pain.

True Dragon Deification: The completed Diabolos Dragon God attained after recovering his sexual desires. Its full potential exceeds even Pseudo-DxD.

Ascalon: A powerful holy dragon-slaying sword created for Issei that he can summon and enhance with Boosted Gear's abilities.

Other abilities include firing destructive Dragon Shots, breathing powerful flames, summoning Ryuuteimaru, dragonification to grow dragon traits, and wielding replicas of mythical weapons like Mjolnir.

Trivia

• Issei is engaged to Rias, Akeno, Xenovia, Asia, Koneko, Kuroka, and Rossweisse.
• His true nature aims for world peace, unlike rivals like Vali.
• Sun Wukong's training elevated Issei's combat skills to surpass most young devils.
• Issei can attract many allies because he's the Red Dragon Emperor's host.
• Children in the Underworld idolize Issei as the heroic "Oppai Dragon."
• Tannin considers Issei the true "Dragon King" for his noble spirit. According to Rias, older women are naturally attracted to Issei's personality.