Bit of an excuse, but I do want to keep them in the same general pose for consistency, but for the future I'll definitely differentiate the poses a bit more.
I think you can work with other elements rather than pose to get a consistency. Like colour, which you've already done. Like said before there are a lot of "bad" shading and colours that aren't effective.
Also using keeping the style as an excuse won't get you anywhere. There are issues that are non style related to both of the versions.
One of these are the anatomy. Even if you can go far regarding this for style there has to be some limit before the character just look weird and non believable. Like said before the proportions of the body just looks so off that you can't excuse it as style.
Another concern is the colours. I think you can try to be more creative with how you think with colours and take it up a notch. Dare play around with palette a bit. There's so much grey and white going on that it just makes the characters uninteresting. So in my brain there aren't really a big difference between the two different styles you've served. They give the same reaction.
I take it as you want to go for a sort of anime look for your ordinary style, here's my take on it:

Also, I have as a thing to avoid using the colour I use for outlines inside the sprite as much as possible or at least keep them seperated.
Hope it helps you on your way!