The angel who refused to stay pure delivers an unvarnished portrayal of faith, jealousy, and wanting what she's not supposed to want.
By Le Baron Rouge
When she was filming the latest season of High School DxD, Irina Shidou dreamed that she was falling. "There's a huge pair of white wings above you," she narrates in her bright, earnest voice, "and they're not yours. Someone is watching. Waiting to see if you'll catch yourself or crash." For Irina, who plays a reincarnated angel torn between her sacred duty and her very un-sacred feelings for Issei Hyoudou, it was one of many subconscious moments that made it into her performance. Irina doesn't have a dream coach—she has a sword and a prayer—but she's learned to listen to the quiet voice underneath the halo.
In the current season of High School DxD, Irina evokes longing in a way possibly never seen in the series before. Though it's a cliché to say a character disappears into her role, she really does subsume herself into the part of the conflicted holy warrior—caught between Heaven's expectations and her own heart—as she has across so many previous arcs. Seeing Irina as the bubbly childhood friend in Season 2, the earnest ally in Season 3, or the jealous rival in Season 4, viewers reliably found themselves surprised when her mask cracked and something rawer slipped through.
Even now, sitting in the corner of a quiet church in Kuoh Town, her twin-tailed honey-blonde hair catching the light through stained glass, she looks utterly different from what fans might picture. It's partly that Irina has one of those faces that can be both innocent and knowing, but also that she commits herself so wholeheartedly and unselfconsciously that you forget she's wearing a uniform. "My job is to get more honest," she tells me. "To become more human, if I dare. Even though I'm technically not anymore." Her performance in the latest season is volcanically emotional; the writers had Irina and Issei share several one-on-one scenes that, as Irina says, build up a "kinetic tension" between them. (Whatever fans are picturing, it's been teased for seasons; Irina says, laughing, blushing: "We haven't done anything. Yet.")
Irina studied combat training at the angelic reincarnation program, and first lifted her blade in a small mission alongside Xenovia—who would become her closest friend and, occasionally, her rival. She's always been drawn to the language of faith, which feels just as relevant even when surrounded by devils, fallen angels, and Issei's antics. "We need big feelings for right now," she says. Irina also has a musical background, having sung in her church choir as a human girl. Music "was able to hold my bursting, confused feelings," she says, and it remains a comfort. She hums hymns when she trains. And she says watching how Xenovia handles her own forbidden desires shaped Irina's approach to her own. "Xenovia chooses, in the bravest way, to let you see the cracks inside her heart. I want to be that brave someday."
One of the striking aspects of Irina's arc in the latest season is the way it shows how faith and desire can conflict inside a single heart. Heaven expects purity. Irina's body wants Issei. And Issei, being Issei, is mostly oblivious. "Love isn't one color," Irina says. "There's jealousy in there. There's broken pieces of hope. It's devotion, it's doubt, it's everything. Stories help us transcend the things that we don't know how to let out of ourselves."
As she prepared to film the powerful confession scene—where she finally admits to herself, if not to Issei, that she wants him—"I had no idea where I was going to go. And being lost was part of it. I remember thinking, 'Actually, maybe it's deeply faithful to be lost. And if I can let them see that, then so be it,'" she says. "The faith is a person who's trying to find herself in a moment where she's totally conflicted. It's a mess being an angel who still feels human."
Irina is again collaborating with the High School DxD writing team for the next arc, which will feature a reimagined conflict that puts her in direct opposition to someone she loves. She points out that holy warriors are often written as one-dimensional—pure, obedient, above earthly longing—and in the current telling, she is given more agency to want, to fail, to feel. Ultimately, she says, the arc asks, "What are the bits of ourselves that we lock away in morality's attic, that we don't allow out?"
It's a question Irina is interested in posing, not just through her battles, but increasingly through quieter moments. She's working on developing her own understanding of what it means to serve something greater while still honoring her own heart. "In the past, warriors of faith were expected to suppress everything. And I feel like now everything's so much more honest. The best stories give themselves obstacles and create a whole new way of feeling," she says. "It's my turn to find that new thing now—that's my mission."
ON WANTING WHAT SHE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO WANT
It hasn't been a conscious choice. The feeling has just been the most honest part of me. I have been seismically changed by watching how the other women in my life handle their own desires. When I see them struggle and still choose to be kind, I recognize someone that I hope to become.
The questions and the temptations and the messy, beautiful chaos—and the understanding of what it is to be a full life force, the complex spectrum of colors of a woman—is something that the best stories seed into their characters. It's in Xenovia's blunt honesty, in Rias's quiet strength, in Akeno's embrace of her darker side. They're full. And I think the reason why I keep fighting is because I want the full story.
ON PLAYING OPPOSITE ISSEI HYOUDOU
Sometimes you just have great chemistry with someone on set—or on a battlefield—which allowed us to go wherever we needed to go. As friends and allies, we knew we could hold all of that, and we did. And more than any male character I've fought beside, it's been the fullest version of what that connection could be.
ON ISOLATING HERSELF BEFORE BIG BATTLES
The chapel where I pray before fights is incredible. I remember after one big battle, they put me up in a very nice dorm room with the others. And it was one of those… it had a really comfortable bed. And I was like, "No, no. I can't be here." I needed to be in the cold church, on the hard pew, alone. And as Xenovia walked past me, she said, "Are you going to be okay here?" I was like, "Yes, I'm going to be so fine. I need to remember what I'm fighting for."
ON WHAT THE LATEST ARC SAYS ABOUT FAITH AND LOVE
I love love. Love is worth it. What else are you going to do? Lock yourself away in Heaven and pretend not to feel? I think you've got to live. Even if I'm an angel now, I was human once. Maybe that part of me never really left. Maybe the feelings I have for Issei—as confusing and impossible as they are—are proof that I'm still here. Still real. Maybe we have to live like that.
ON EARLY MOMENTS THAT INSPIRED HER AS A WARRIOR
The first time I became obsessed with trying to see "How did she do that?" was watching Xenovia cut down a fallen angel twice her size. She just stood there, breathing hard, no dramatic speech, no prayer. Just her sword and her will. I must have been newly reincarnated when I first saw her. And I would replay that moment in my head on repeat, and it would make my heart ache. I couldn't contain how huge it was, the amount of conviction that she was expressing through my own memory, and how it was transcending everything, transporting me to her certainty.
ON WARRIOR-WOMEN WHO INFLUENCED HER
"I grew up watching them. Not literally — I mean, I was a human girl once, and then an angel, but I had time to study. To dream."
Irina's eyes soften when she talks about the women who shaped her.
"Saber from Fate/stay night — she taught me that honor and heart can coexist. That a warrior can be both untouchable and deeply, achingly human. She never stopped believing in her cause, even when it broke her. I think about her when I don't want to get up again."
"Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell — she's not emotional like me. She's cold and precise and impossibly competent. But she asks the same question I do: What am I, really? Am I the angel? The girl I used to be? Something in between? The Major taught me that the question itself is worth living inside."
"Nausicaä from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind — she's not a warrior in the swinging-a-sword way. But she fights harder than anyone. She fights for peace, for understanding, for things that seem impossible. And she never once made me feel like softness was weakness. I carry her in my chest when I pray."
"Revy from Black Lagoon — okay, she's the opposite of me. Loud, violent, completely without faith. But she owns every single thing she is. No apology. No guilt. I envy that. I watch her and think: What if I just… wanted things? Out loud? Revy made me brave enough to admit that I do."
"Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary Girl Utena — she wanted to be a prince. I wanted to be a good angel. But we both learned the same lesson: the roles we're given don't have to be the roles we keep. Utena broke my heart and then put it back together differently. I've never been the same."
"And Casca from Berserk — she fought alongside men who didn't always take her seriously. She fell. She broke. She survived things that should have ended her. And she kept going. Casca taught me that a warrior's worth isn't in never falling. It's in getting back up. Even when Heaven itself has turned away."
Irina pauses, her fingers tracing the edge of her holy sword.
"What I've learned from all of them is: get to know yourself. Be ruthless in bringing the life force of what it is to be a woman — angel or not — to the surface. They didn't have halos. Some of them didn't have faith. But they had fight. And that's holy enough for me."
ON HER FIRST REAL MISSION AFTER REINCARNATION
It's a big deal to get sent on a real mission when you're starting out. And especially one that you go, "I would love to do this." Sometimes you don't connect with a battle at all. But that first mission ripped through me like a holy wave. I've always liked training. I've always thought, I'll go and do my best, and if this path crosses mine for just a week and I get to know something about the world that I didn't before, then that's amazing.
I went into that mission and it felt great, but I didn't hear anything—no praise, no recognition—for a month. I kept my angelic blade under my pillow because I wanted to keep fighting an awful lot. So it was a nice feeling when that next call came through.
Lead image: Facial, the Catholic kind. Sword, Yoshihara Yoshindo. Halo, on loan from Heaven (terms and conditions apply). Tights, Issey Miyake. Shoes, Ginza Diana.
Hair by THE GARDEN Tokyo. Makeup by NINJA HARAJUKU. Photography by Kimono Photo Studio 和.
WATCH NEXT
Essential Irina Episodes to Stream
High School DxD Season 2, Episode 5–6 ("The Disappearance of the Predecessor" / "The Devil's Training") — Irina's first appearance as a reincarnated angel. Childhood friend returns, now on the opposite side. Watch and feel the tension immediately.
High School DxD Season 2, Episode 9–10 ("The Holy Sword of Cross" / "Showdown! The Church on the Hill") — Irina and Xenovia's friendship-turned-rivalry takes center stage. Holy swords and holier feelings.
High School DxD Season 4, Episode 8–9 ("The Young Girl's Thoughts" / "Battle of the Rating Game") — Irina's jealousy arc. She finally admits—to herself, not to him—that she wants Issei. Painful and beautiful.
High School DxD Season 5, Episode 3–4 (Current Season) — The confession scene. The mask slips. Irina becomes the most honest angel in Heaven.
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