Really like the character!
The style and execution is great.
Your "line of action" is not as strong as it could be.
This is because you have the passive arms sort of working against the focus on the active arms:
By changing the pose a little you can create a more singular and definite, therefore "stronger", line of action.
This works much the same way as composition in designing a static image to create flow and focus.
Focus should generally be directed to the area doing or about to do the most action.
So here we try to change the shape to be more directional:
Your original is 12 frames and my edit is 23:
It's not that huge of a difference but it could get away with less frames if you have major restrictions.
We are both using 3 delays 60fps.
Especially wondering about speed/ delays etc
Decreasing the delay fps will allow you to get away with more action.
More impact and motion can be added as it all happens faster and flows together better visually.
Increasing the amount of delay means less work.
The animation lasts longer with less drawings.
But "drag shapes" and "multi frames" will be less effective the more time they are shown.
Find a good compromise between your engine/time restrictions, the amount of work you want to do, and how well you need the animation to flow.
Animation with less action does not require as low of delays.
But could still benefit from it of course.
Go look at my edit in the Punchy punch robot fun thread.
That animation runs at only 2 delays 60fps.
This makes it much faster and more room to stuff in action and timing.
However it ended up being 134 frames.
It depends on what you want but generally people agree that less work is favorable, and higher delays can still be made to look really good even with lots of action.
To get more speed you can do whats called a "multi frame".
You can start by drawing all of the frames separately, showing the motion, just as you already have:
Then you can stack them on top of each other all in a single frame:
packing multiple frames together makes the motion happen faster, as they are all shown at once.
At a decent speed your mind will perceive it as a fast motion.
The stacked frame will also clearly show your line of action.
After getting a good idea of the motion, arcs, and line of action, you can stylize this frame.
There are many different ways of representing this visually.
Purely multiple frames, solid drag forms, particle effects, repeating shapes, blur, etc.
It just depends on what you want.
This is how I styled the multi frame in my edit:
Doing more passes you can add cool stuff like particle effects, lighting effects, etc to supplement the motion.
Action and Reaction go hand in hand:
For me pixel animation is all about re-use.
Make finished art.
A few key frames.
Get good motion just using the select tool.
Clean up.
Make another pass.
What you have is a really good start.
Play around, try variations and new things.
