First sprite in a long time

Well I'm posting this here since I had zero comments when I posted it in Fire, guess spriting really is extinct down there, it's a shame coz I think now there is no country in NTSD that specializes in spriting...
I didn't sprite in a long time, ever since I lost a contest last year, I'm still positive that I should have won, the contest was fixed !!! ^^
Anyways I wanted to sprite this for a long time now, this One piece character was actually the reason I started to sprite, he's the first dude I sprited but I sucked-ass then ^^
This one I think is pretty decent.

I give you Mr. 5's bomb kick (the explosion I do not own, it's from a JUS sheet, the rest is mine so ask if you intend on doing anything to it).



The second version (practicaly the same exept for some pixels moved around) :



Referenced from : http://www.volonte-d.com/techniques/images/mr502.jpg

Critics please...

I prefer V2, explosion looks better a little further away
Maybe add some more lighting on the clothing around the explosion

I'll post a proper critique when I'm in a computer

Yeah I see what you mean, but shading has never been my greatest quality in spriting and the lighting effect is rather new to me so I still don't know how apply it...
Looking forward to the rest of your critic.