I don't know, odd as it may seem, I think it works.
Imagine it's a real game for a minute. Character select screen appears, and you immediately see the portrait of Al. His pointing finger leads your eye to the in-game sprite, and the two selection arrows. You now know that by pressing left or right you can change your character. It all seems to work, whilst at the same time it doesn't feel right.
The different spacing of the arrows is really off putting, and I think the dark centre makes them too dominant over the sprite. The halo around the character sprite is really blurry, bevelled and just plain yuck.