I think you're going for more of a Chrono-Trigger look in your original animation, so you might want to look at some of those animations if you haven't already. On the other hand, the Illusion of Gaia had a nice run cycle as well, so that's not a bad source of inspiration -- it looks youthful and lively.

I know, I might be crossing styles, now. I might end up redoing all of them to bring them more in line with each other in the end.

And speaking of edits, you'd be much better off tucking the 'inspiration' sprite on the side and using it as a reference than editing it directly. You lose the parts that the original animator nailed when you erase them and try to reinterpret them rather than drawing each frame from scratch while simply referencing the frame you'd like to use to the side of your animation.

Eh? I *did* draw everything myself, though, usually without even having the Gaia sprite open at all. I'd never just draw on top of another sprite. It's definitely stealing in my book. Even when just looking at a sprite for reference, I make sure to name it to credit the original artist. People who steal art make me sick, hahah! Like you say, though, the Gaia artists knew what they were doing, while I don't.

The fact that you think I simply edited the sprite is bad news, though. I obviously consulted my reference too often if it looks that close. 80% of the time I worked on my sprite, I didn't even have the Gaia sprite open, though. I must have consulted it too much during the roughing out phase of my sprite, I guess. : \
I only checked the forms, though, and went from there. I never per-pixel edited or anything like that, so your suggestions are making me a little uncomfortable, especially since I've called out (and yelled at) plagiarists here and other places a million times before. ^ ^;;
The crappy sprite up there wasn't a cheap re-color of another person's work. It was about five hours of messing up, studying Gaia's run cycles (front, back, and sides - I couldn't read the North facing sprite's legs, actually!), erasing things, redrawing things, getting pissed and started all over again, and...yeah. That sort of normal art tedium, hahah! It sucks that after all that effort, I still only have a two-frame animation that looks like a cheap copy of somebody else's work, but I can at least promise you that it is in fact my work! X'D
With the other versions I've done, consulting the Animator's Survival Kit and various other run cycles, I'm probably pushing close to twelve hours now. I'm slow, but I'm learning. If I couldn't have made a certain sprite without consulting my reference in the end, I won't be happy with it. With that said, I'll have to try again later, hahah. Thanks again for the reply, astraldata! =)

Edit: Was there a front-facing edit, too? I like the small changes you made to the skirt on this one.

Edit edit: Actually, now that the shock of being accused of tracing (all? wut?) of my sprites has worn off, and I read your post again...

Gah! Being serious, though, thanks for the (hopefully) well-meaning reply. Your advice was good.

Well, worked on it some more, and ended up with this:

It's an improvement, I think, but something still seems off. Any ideas?

I really don't know how to call it, but it's basically RPG Maker's Hyper Light Drifter's graphics, and it has 8 direction movement with sprites for only 4 directions (I think thats enough sprites)

Fixed. X'D
Not that being inspired by something is a bad thing, but it might be a little too obvious in this case...
For the attack animation, I can't tell what it is he's doing, sadly. Is that his head down near his stomach? That's what it's reading as, but his sword is above where his head should normally be, so it must be his stomach that's showing, right? You have a blue head with a white headband, and a blue stomach with a white belt, so it's a little hard to tell what's going on with such fast movement. Maybe try a different color for his tunic to fix that? =)

For the walking animation, it looks like his feet are just teleporting around, instead of him walking. I can't get my walk cycle to look correct, either, but a good reference is the Animator's Survival Kit. It has a bunch of basic walk cycles in it. For now, maybe making his back leg darker would make it easier to spot the problems?

Cyang, I guess it's not such a pity if people would be repelled because they're made uncomfortable by the content being posted, then? 

Both would be a shame, but in one situation, we'd have naked girls, and in the other, we wouldn't. 
Ellian and Atnas: I'm loving your stuff! <3
Especially loving Atnas' concept art. Looks unique enough to be interesting, but not so out there as to be off-putting. Very nice! =)

RPG chest appearing animation!

I think I'll actually be doing a kappa or kasa-obake for my game next, Ellian, so I'll post them here, I guess. =)

That technique really does look useful for larger-scale pieces of work, but your sprite is pretty small. I actually think your second version is the best one, with the third being a close second, and the first being the weakest. The second two are looking pretty good, though!