Everything you say makes sense, but it does not describe the sort of idle animation that a lot of 2d games are plagued with. I don't like tradition as an end in itself and I feel the generic idle bouncy animation for fighter sprites should be evaluated with a bit more critical thinking than it usually is. What you're describing would take a complex animation system to be rendered but it would be worth it much more than the generic 2 pixel vertical bounce.

Well, I think a little bouncing is better than just standing there. Sure, more realistic animations would be great, but there are other factors to consider. Aside from development time, there's the gameplay fact that realistic "idle" animation would involve moving the character forward and back, and players won't like it if their character is moving without their control.

I think the problem isn't with the nature of the motion, since bobbing and weaving is one of the things that boxers do when they're not actively throwing a punch or blocking one, but rather just that the character is only doing one thing. The bobbing and weaving should be continuous, as it is now, but preferably with some rotation of the upper torso and/or "leaning" to the character's left and right, i.e. towards and away from the viewer. Also, the head should be moving around more, as that's the target you really want to make hard to hit. Finally, some other "feinting" should be thrown in... move the left hand a little forward once in a while, or twist the right shoulder slightly forward, as if starting to throw a jab or right cross. I guess you'd have to do the character as more than a single image, so that you could superimpose e.g. an arm animation or a duck of the head on top of the constant bobbing.

Also i don't get why you break a 2x1 outline like that. It makes the resolution seem lower especially on Kunimitsu's feet.

Maybe it's meant to be aliasing, not an outline... looks like an outline on a pale bg, but maybe he worked on them against a dark bg or intends to use them with one.

The old hair was more dynamic really, The long side of the jacket closest to us (still on the 4th guy), seems to have more of a gradient than actual shape going on. It'd be nice to see a little hint of a gold coming from the back there.

...or red light from his fireball. I mean, right now you have just some stringy red lines, but I assume those will turn into fire eventually, like in the '07 version. Presumably that would cast some light.

You've come a long way in a year. I also like the fat guy better than the other two, though there's nothing wrong with them either... he's just got more personality. I find the highlight on his nose too bright, though... looks like he's got bird poop or something on it. Also agree that the shading on the pants is wrong... too dark below the knee. Combined with the (too) short calves, it looks like his legs are bent back, as if he's jumping and kicking his heels up behind him, although that's clearly not the case because of the way his feet are.

alex- be aware that you are working on a flat model with only two hanging points.  clothing, on the other hand, is much more complicated than that and can exhibit a million different manners of falling and folding.

in general though yeah vertical weight and motion is a plus.

Of course... I just meant it to illustrate the fact that you're not going to get a bunch of evenly spaced horizontal ripples on a piece of cloth that's hanging vertically.