The characters of the manga and anime series D.N.Angel.

Daisuke Niwa

• All-Loving Hero: His trademark character trait. It doesn't matter if they're friend, foe or someone actively trying to hurt him, Daisuke will always show them empathy and kindness when no one else would.
• Betty and Veronica: He's the Betty to Dark's Veronica when it comes to both Harada sisters... in a way.
• Cannot Spit It Out: He cannot tell Riku that he is Dark in fear of getting rejected because in order for him to stop transforming into Dark, Riku needs to love all of Daisuke, which means both Daisuke and Dark — who Riku absolutely... hates.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Dude can jump over a gate several times his height thanks to the training his family put him through.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Satoshi and Keiji anyone?
• Heroic BSoD: At the end of the Ice and Snow arc of the anime, due to having to leave Freedert behind to die.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Dark, Satoshi, and Takeshi.
• Hopeless Suitor: For Risa, who is infatuated with Dark because he's cooler and sexier.
• Identical Grandson: Daisuke looks a lot like his grandfather did in his youth, enough to cause at least one person (the spirit of a girl Daiki befriended when he was Daisuke's age) to mistake him for the former.
• Magnetic Hero: Downplayed due the limited recurring cast but Daisuke's kindness earns the trust and companionship of various faction, be it former enemies like Towa or Argentine, the prickly Riku or the aloof and occasionally antagonistic Hiwatari.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He's been trained as a thief his whole life, after all, and when he's not being a Cute Clumsy Guy it really, really shows. He impressed even Dark at least once and even Satoshi mentions this.
• Second Love: Ultimately gets over Risa to be with Riku.
• Secret-Identity Identity: Considering Dark's always telling him "I am you," it isn't too much of a surprise that in the ending chapters of Stage 4 during the dance, Daisuke's and Dark's emotions seem to be getting melded together, and Daisuke is having trouble figuring out just who is dancing with Risa and just who is feeling these things for her. This is an interesting case, considering just how independent from each other the two are generally portrayed.
• Sexier Alter Ego: In the eyes of most of the girls in the strip, Daisuke is cute but Dark is superstar level hot. Riku is the notable exception, in that she prefers Daisuke.

Dark Mousy

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted with Riku, but played straight with Risa and the rest of the girls.
• Betty and Veronica: He's the Veronica to Daisuke's Betty when it comes to both Harada sisters... in a way.
• Big Brother Mentor: Somewhat fills this role towards Daisuke, as he sometimes (though not always) gives Daisuke advice on his problems, and, as their relationship grows closer and improves, he loves to tease and mess with Daisuke as any older brother would. Their brotherly relationship is one of the main focuses of the series.
• Chick Magnet: Girls practically fall head over heels as soon as they see him.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His name and looks certainly make him look like a typical pretty boy anime villain, but he's really quite the gentleman, and he only steals cursed artwork.
• Gentleman Thief: This is Dark to the very core. He only goes after the hardest-to-get targets, which are very rare themselves, and he alerts the police, all core elements of the trope.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In the manga, Dark is at times envious that Daisuke is the object of Riku's affections.
• Love Hurts: Oh so much. Dark's love interest (in the manga) Riku totally hates Dark's guts, and Dark lets down his second love interest Risa because he knows he can't be with her. Because Dark disappears whenever his Niwa host finds true love with someone who accepts him for who he truly is, Dark suffers whenever he falls in love because he can never stay. Later on, Daisuke's grandfather Daiki reveals to Kousuke that while he was Daisuke's age, Daiki and Dark were both in love the same girl (who eventually becomes Daisuke's grandmother), but she chose Daiki over him, causing Dark to disappear.
• Mirror Character: Dark and Krad, two halves of the same cursed painting who now possess hosts from different hereditary lineages in the same manner and are constantly in conflict. And, well...take a look at the way their names are spelled.
• Mr. Fanservice: Being the Sexier Alter Ego of the adorkable and clumsy nice guy who gets more than a few shirtless scenes? Oh yes.
• Second Love: In later chapters in the manga, Dark begins reciprocating Risa's feelings for him.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Literally, contrasted against the lighter-haired and shorter Daisuke.

Risa Harada

• A-Cup Angst: Downplayed, but the original reason for wanting a cool, awesome boyfriend is because she’s jealous of her sister, Riku, having a slightly larger chest than her.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Rejected Daisuke because he was an average nice guy and is infatuated with Dark because he's a sexy and cool badass thief. It seems to be more caused by immaturity than anything though, as her growing feelings for Satoshi attest.
• Character Development: She becomes more sensitive and less childish as the series progresses.
• Curtains Match the Window: Brown hair and brown eyes.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Not this one.
• Genki Girl: Is mildly more hyperactive in the manga.
• Hopeless Suitor: For Dark. However, in the manga, Dark begins to reciprocate her feelings. Even then though, they can't be together, as eventually Daisuke will break the curse when he finds true love and cause Dark to go away.
• Identical Granddaughter: Part of the reason why Dark was attracted to her.
• Innocently Insensitive: The first part of the series involves her unintentionally breaking Daisuke's heart. She's learning to be more aware of other people's feelings.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: To differentiate herself from her twin sister, Risa has long flowing locks.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: At school, she's popular and pretty, but is never quite the meanest.
• Loves My Alter Ego: Risa falls in love with Dark, Daisuke's alter ego, while only seeing Daisuke as a friend.
• Manipulative Bitch: Becomes more adept at manipulating others into doing what she wants them to do in the manga, but unlike most examples, she's a good person and tends to use her skills in manipulation for good purposes.
• Nice Girl: Shallowness aside, she is generally kind and well-meaning,
• Oblivious to Love: She had no idea that Daisuke had a crush on her. It certainly doesn't help that she declared themselves Just Friends when he was about confess his feelings for her.
  • Satoshi literally semi-confessed to her (“here’s a small token of my feelings for you”) in Chapter 89 yet Risa had trouble trying to interpret what he meant by that.
• Polar Opposite Twins: She's much more feminine and image focused than her sister, an athlete who doesn't care as much for that stuff.
• Psychic Link: The Harada twins share a strong bond where they can feel what the other twin feels whenever one is in danger.
• Ship Tease: Risa begins to have a lot of screentime with Satoshi in the manga.
• Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Risa initially liked Dark because of how "cool" he looks.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Risa's the Girly-Girl to Riku's Tomboy.

Riku Harada

• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the anime, her hair is more red than brown.
• Boyish Short Hair: More of a bob haircut, really. It differentiates her from her more feminine sister who has long hair.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: At the very least her sister thinks so, as the reason Risa wants a hot boyfriend is that Risa mentions that Riku is five millimeters bigger than her.
• Curtains Match the Window: In the manga, she has matching brown hair and eyes like Risa.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Is initially insecure of her newfound relationship with Daisuke and fears that she is only a replacement for her twin sister Risa, Daisuke's first love.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Riku is an athlete who (outwardly) doesn't care as much for popularity while Risa is a girly-girl with more traditionally feminine interests.
• Psychic Link: The Harada twins share a strong bond where they can feel what the other twin feels whenever one is in danger.
• Replacement Goldfish: In Volumes 5 and 6, Riku fears that the only reason Daisuke likes her is because of her resemblance to Risa.
• Second Love: Is this for Daisuke in the end.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: In contrast to her twin sister Risa, Riku develops feelings for the socially awkward but overall nice guy Daisuke and hates the ever popular ladies' man Dark.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Riku's the athletic Tomboy to Risa's girly girl.
• Tsundere: Though a much more mild case than the the typical stock archetype.

Satoshi Hiwatari

• Ambiguously Bi: It's hinted that he may have feelings for Risa, and it's equally hinted that he may have romantic feelings for Daisuke. When this is brought up, he doesn't openly confess to anything, though he never denies the accusations either. If anything, he encourages the idea, which has led to the source of much confusion regarding his motives. It has even been stated outright by Dark that Daisuke is the one who causes Satoshi to turn into Krad. Krad himself has also hinted at Satoshi possibly wanting more than a friendship from Daisuke at least once in the anime, and more than twice in the manga. In any case, he at least wants to be close to Daisuke despite the danger of Krad to both of them.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Satoshi initially only intended to get close to Daisuke due to the fact that the latter was the living vessel of the Hikari family's sworn enemy, however, by the end of episode 4 until the end of the series, he shows a protective side towards Daisuke, whom he truly cares for.
• Broken Ace:
  • Satoshi is taller than the other students in his class, very handsome, and highly intelligent, but he is cursed with the Hikari bloodline of being a vessel for a psychopathic alter ego who only wants to take over his body; add to the fact that he has resigned himself to die early due to the curse that he carries, and his adoptive father only wants to use him to access the Hikari artworks.
  • He often has to fight his transformation into Krad, which is a great source of physical, mental, and emotional pain for him since he knows how selfish and homicidal his alter ego is. When he is forced to turn into Krad, he has to REALLY fight just to regain control of his body, and by the time he does, he's so exhausted that he is on the verge of collapse.
  • He has no one to lean on, until Daisuke befriends him.
• Curtains Match the Window: Blue hair and blue eyes.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: A male example and a deconstruction as given that Krad tends to take over when Satoshi gets emotional, this is anything but good.
• Dropped Glasses: When this happens to him, it's not a good sign.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Is revealed to be this in the final chapters. His adoptive father turns out to not only be his biological father but also an Hikari artwork, making him a human/artwork hybrid. Functionally he seems to be completely human and he doesn't turn to stone like the other artworks at the end of the manga, so it's unclear what effect his nature has on him.
• Icy Blue Eyes: He may seem cold and distant, but that's because he has an evil Split Personality that wants to causes pain and destruction.
• No Sense of Personal Space: With Daisuke on more than one occasion in the anime and manga.
• The Pawn: To his father and Krad. Satoshi is basically trapped between the two, forced into a painful, difficult relationship with them; he is often against their plans, but is forced into a corner, especially when Krad takes over.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses: It's heavily implied that the reason he wears them is to keep Krad at bay.
  • Averted when he loses his glasses in issue 12 and we see that he's actually pretty near sighted. Daisuke actually offers to dive into a rapidly moving river and risk death looking for them but Satoshi assures him that they can manage without them since he was given similar training to Daisuke as a child.
• Ship Tease: In the manga, Satoshi has been getting a lot of screentime with Risa.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He may be cold, stoic, and appear aloof, however, he is very protective of Daisuke, and even risks risks his life more than once just to help him; he also has several cute moments with Risa in the manga.
  • In the manga, he is shown to be in great emotional pain after temporarily imprisoning Dark in a mirror, and causing severe injuries to Daisuke. He then proceeds to tell Daisuke how to get Dark back, despite knowing that the latter's return will also cause Krad to emerge, thus causing him more pain - physically and emotionally. He falls apart when Daisuke still thanks him for telling how to get Dark back, revealing that he doesn't want to hurt him.
• Teen Genius: Graduated college at the age of 13 and is a lead detective on the case to capture Dark.

Krad

• Evil Counterpart: To Dark.
• Fallen Angel: He's more wicked than traditional angels.
• Light Is Not Good: His lighter hair and eyes, and white wardrobe, in contrast to Dark.
• Mirror Character: Dark and Krad, two halves of the same cursed painting who now possess hosts from different hereditary lineages in the same manner and are constantly in conflict. And, well...take a look at the way their names are spelled.
• Sdrawkcab Name: His name is "Dark" spelled backwards. Get it?
• Shadow Archetype: To Dark, to the point where his color scheme is stated to be deliberately ironic. This makes sense, considering they are each a half of the same living artwork, "The Black Wings."
• Slasher Smile: When attacking Dark in episode 24 of the anime. And it is scary.

Wiz/With

• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 9 of the anime, in which he develops a crush on a normal rabbit at a pet store.
• Ambiguous Species: It's not clear if he really is supposed to be a rabbit or not. The regular rabbit shown in episode 9 looked much different than him, so it appears he is not really a rabbit. The anime, at least, implies he's a living artwork like Towa, as he loses energy and turns to stone just like she does.
• Familiar: Functions as this to Dark.
• Morphic Resonance: He's unable to speak human while transformed into a copy of Daisuke, being only able to make the noises he normally makes.
• Rascally Rabbit: He acts as a familiar to a Phantom Thief and his shapeshifting powers are used to trick people. In the anime, he also sometimes engages in minor acts of mischief such as tagging along with Daisuke at school by hiding in Daisuke's school bag or eating all the strawberries.
• Shapeshifter: Though it appears he has limits. The only thing he's shown shapeshifting into is Dark's wings and a copy of Daisuke.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Strawberries.

Mio Hio

• Canon Foreigner: She doesn't appear in the manga, and functions as a Filler Villain until her Heel–Face Turn
• Feet-First Introduction: By way of stepping out of a car.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Finding she can't bring herself to harm Daisuke, she seals herself in the pendant she was going to use to steal his life away, permanently sacrificing her chance at humanity.
• New Transfer Student: Transfers to Daisuke's school from America.
• Poirot Speak: She mixes English words into her speech.
• Shipper on Deck: She becomes this to Daisuke and Riku.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Inverted - She never wears the school uniform, not even the school swimsuit.
• Symbol Motif Clothing: Her outfits tend to have a crown symbol on them somewhere. Just like the crown on her doll body's head.
• Valley Girl: She speaks like this in the English dub, in place of the Poirot Speak. And it's part of her act. When she drops her facade, she speaks normally.
• Walking Spoiler: It's kind of hard to talk about her without revealing too much.