This is a male or female?

If male the hips are too wide and the upper body too slender. And the chest looks like breasts.

If female the shoulders are too broad and the forearms a tad too thick.

Thanks for commenting. What do you mean about the view? Its got eyes.

Better?
I removed dithering, and added the leg lightningy thing.

Less Jumpy

 Not really what I meant. You had 2 frames ( frame 4 and frame 8 ) where the head was 1 pixel too high. If you wanted a sharp bob in the run then it works but if you don't here is what it should look like. Also slowed it down a bit so you can see it better

 

My confusion about the direction was partially because I didn't know that the eyes were eyes, looked like ears and the green spot looked like a facemask.

But also the left arm looked bent backwards making it seem like you're looking at his back. Fixed in the newer version

The new version looks flatter but the lighting is clearer

 

This gets my vote as the most believable attack edit posted so far.

 I don't know about the black shadows, It might be better if you put a less saturated version of your foreground tile as the shadow part.

 The grass seems to be missing some color variation, maybe a few yellow or orange blades here or there.

 Same with the dirt. Its all the same hue of brown, mix it up a little.

His head seems more elephant then squid.

He needs eyes ( big bulging ones ) on the side not the front, and maybe lose the brows.