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I don't remember how many threads back this was and I'm not the original anon who mentioned the furry-uncanniness, but I was thinking about it, so baskinrobins silly boy, if you can hear me...
I think the face shaped by fur should look more, well, furry I guess. The combination of flat cheeks and a curved outward head makes it look less like a fluffy animal and more like a mutant human. Also maybe it's just a personal thing, but I'm not a fan of when furry designs have like, human hairstyles (I don't like when pets have them either lmao).
Your second design has interesting color dispersion with the markings and good shaping (poofy tail, thin front legs and floppy back legs, shaped cheek fur.) The anthro version gets rid of most of that by having a humanoid body, so you have to make up for the shaping somewhere, a typical humanoid body will usually do this with clothes. So I'd say if you want to go anthro, you'll need better drip, my man. If you really don't want to wear more clothes, see what interesting shaping you can do with the fur or body parts.
Hopefully this makes sense. The last version edit is just something I put together quickly based on my own preference, so feel free to disregard that if it's not what you're going for especially since it's only a mashup and doesn't have any additions.
