Full Trailer For Rina Takeda's KARATE GIRL (KG)

High Kick Girl star Rina Takeda will soon be returning to Japanese screens in Yoshikatsu Kimura's Karate Girl - or simply KG - in which she stars as a teenage girl trying to rescue her sister from the evil clan that kidnapped her at a young age while also recovering a stolen family heirloom - a karate black belt dating back hundreds of years - that was taken at the same time.

Producers are clearly grooming Takeda for major action stardom and High Kick Girl certainly proved she had that potential. However that first effort - for reasons entirely outside of Takeda's control - was also not very good. Her sophomore effort needs to be significantly better if her fledgling career is to take root. Is it?

Well, the production values are certainly a step up, though not a particularly big one. And fight fans will be pleased to see that there is no signed of the wildly overused slo-mo replays that plagued High Kick Girl. So, yes, there are improvements. But I'm not sure that they are enough. While Takeda's athleticism is on ample display there's a notable lack of finish to the fight sequences. Too many of her kicks look like steps, unfortunately, as she's simply not driving through to the end and without that final snap the action simply lacks the impact it needs to really sell it to an audience.

But that's just my opinion. Take a look and let us know what you think. The trailer starts with a bit of behind the scenes training footage to demonstrate that she can really do this stuff before cutting to the finished footage.