Actually, i think the difference between the face/back running and the profile running is because in the latter, the arms are not "raised up" horizontally like in the other two...?

It still is a great job ^^

yeah, i understand - context and style are incredibly important! it already looks great, it probably looks even better in context.

 yes, perspective and normal rules were thrown out the window there; the emphasis is made on what the character is doing when she is running. Though I guess I didn't think to foreshorten the arms which I probably could have done... but then again this sprite was made for a topdown view so it might have started to look weird in context to that.

wow, i really like this. i zoomed it up to 2 and then 3x and was just watching the cycle over and over again. i'm curious though - when running vertically, her arms look like they're moving up and down, but while running horizontally, the arms look like they're moving along her side. i think the effect is occuring because in the vertical movement cycles we're 'looking down' at the arms, watching them in bird's eye, but looking forward onto the body, so that we can see the body from the front/back and see the feet kick toward the 'camera' and foreshorten. is that intentional? sorry for the long-windedness.