手垢塗れの天使

Teaka Mamire no Tenshi (手垢塗れの天使) Review

Tegokami Nurete no Tenshi (手垢塗れの天使) is probably pretty well known by now. Before release it was marketed as an eroge about a supposedly pure idol who sells her body behind the scenes via casting couch deals, so the “手垢塗れ” in the title is really an abbreviation. The full phrase is “手垢に塗れる” (teaka ni mamireru), which Japanese dictionaries define as: 多くの人に使用されて汚れる. What does that mean… getting dirty because a lot of people have used it. Some people in China translated the game as “The Scarred Angel,” and at first I thought wow, that’s actually got some mood to it, but looking at the actual plot, it really doesn’t fit… Better to call it “The Soiled Angel” or “The Bus Angel”… considering the heroine does have her pitiful moments, let’s skip the latter.