Thanks :D

Needs more work, I wouldn't swing a sword like that naturally, and neither would you. Record yourself, or a friend if you can, swinging a stick and use that as reference.

It seems so to me also, like when I try to make new states there isn't enough room for flexibility in his limbs and stuff to make his movements seem more human. Trying to keep to a chibi base, so should I just make him bigger for more detail?

o_0 I feel weird since that's exactly how I swing a stick

I wouldn't say you need a lunge exactly as much as you need anticipation (think of a baseball throw, the guy brings his arm back for more power and then throws it.) Even look at the animation there, he lifts the sword up, and then swings it forwards. You might even say he struggles to lift it before he swings it and that creates a larger delay compared to if he used a normal sword.

Given up on that base... too hard for me to flexibi...lize? while keeping it's size, so I made something more human just now:

I'm no expert at pixel art. But, would anyone say it's a bad idea for him to go back to his previous base, make a new top layer, draw a stick figure out of his current base, and then try and animate that stick figure until he gets a good flow? Then simply draw around it.

I haven't done animations yet. But, that's what I'd do.

Ack, I know what you mean. A 10 minute walking animation now takes near to an hour. I like how the base looks though, so imma fun-size him and show u guys what i get.