@Lulu Some of them were even kept since Tekken 2. Take a look at King's chain throws, they've remained the same since 22 years ago. They'll only change the animations when they had to change the character's personality and atmosphere like what they did to Marshall Law from his Tekken 5 animations to Tekken 6.
It's not just animations, though that is part of it. In general the characters just feel and flow better. You feel like you're moving an actual creature that's fighting instead of moving a sticky magnet around that starts a light show whenever it comes into contact with something.
The choppiest characters in DOA5, IMO, are Honoka and Momiji.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the term "choppy". I thought it meant something like wonky and jerky. Jann Lee, Zack, and Ein comes into my mind in that perspective.
Months late, but I had to post this somewhere. Try holding forward in kekken and get ready to witness some animation masterpiece LUL https://i.imgur.com/6my6qF1.gif
And Yeah nobody Animates better than Team Ninja.... They're on the Bleeding Edge of Indepedent Boob Physics for a Reason.