usually I don't like the head pivot in run anims.  But here it adds something, maybe because its fairly slight.  I wonder if it would look better or worse if it was even slighter...

Hey, would it make more sense if his body was pivotting in the opposite direction?  It seems like maybe his arm should be down while his leg is tucked as opposed to when it is extended.  trying to act it out here but it seems goofy (and im sure it is, hopefully some neighbors are watching).  I'll keep playing with it.  whats the name of the animation book everyone reccomends?  I ought to get a copy.
helm, the new avatar is spot-on. 
Editting in a few things I came up with.

Im having fun making these and learning a ton.  I should just have my brother the programmer make it random when you start running which animation you go into and make like 5 so the player doesn't always have to look at the same anims. Or cycle from 1 to 3 to 2 after a bit. but then I have to do transitions for all of them.

Update with a few poses I came up with.  Not entirely ecstatic with either of them but they are cool enough.  Anyone have any opinion either way?  advice? CC? ideas? edits?  anything welcome.  This one is mostly from scratch and unfinished.  I mostly like it.  It does need a lot of polish however if i choose it.

And this one is simply his torso from his standing animation torso pasted onto his legs and bounced around some

which looks cool but I sort hoped not to reuse sprites too much.  I mean with a ninja type guy there is so much potential for cool, unique, dynamic poses, that i want to have fun with this and do all sorts of stuff. for some reason i'm having a heck of a time with this.  help!

Evileye- thank you.  I was up most the night so I worked on the legs, unfortunetely before I got your reply.  I had lengthened the thighs a little bit, but his bowlegged ass still looks like he's been riding a horse for ten hours before he went for this little jog.  It's a little better.  I also fixed the snap somewhat.   

The upper body I haven't addressed yet.  I like your pose, but so did the guys at capcom when they designed strider 2 (which is one of the many influences/refs I used for this along with ninja gaiden, shinobi, ninja scroll, yuma, etc. [but no naruto]).  He'll have his sword on his left (far) side, so I wanted to put his right hand across to the hilt or something but I can't think of a pose I really like.  This is also one of two running states he'll have.  There will also be a dash where he's full out booking it with one arm back one arm straight out so I don't want to undermine the speed of the second run by putting an arm back for this one.  Regardless I appreciate your coming back to critique me.  For now however, its sleepytime.  I will check back later today to see there is any more helpful advice here and then do some more work on him.
I just noticed I forgot to put the layer of his arm back over his leg so it looks even more like he's bowlegged.  which is funny.
and to shoot myself some props, I'm quite happy with the way his pants lag for a second when he brings his leg forward.

I gave it another shot:  lower frame count more motion in between frames.  I tried to time it so that the speed of the leg increased from the furthest extention down to contact paused at the end of the step and then increased in speed again until the loop started over.  its subtle but it makes a difference I think. 

and here's one with twice the frame rate, half the delay, but I don't think I like it as much

again browsers are slowing this down, but in theory they are running at the same speed
the posture is sort of generic but, i guess thats what I was going for. CC? Edits?
Also, I apologize if I should have editted this into my original post.  If so, please let me know and I'll do that in the future.