I'm going to guess you used as a reference a Rastan poster with a white background and japanese title. It gives you an awkward pose because this picture was actually rotated a lot in order to make an interesting composition (A technique used a lot in action comic). If you google image "rastan msx", you should find a box art with a more complete version of the same character, and it's rotated like 45° to have a horizontal horizon. The original legs are rather misshapen and uninteresting though.
This said, I really like this oldschool pixelling and I thank you for revisiting these characters.
Awesome