Thanks for that image. That IS helpful, as I have only limited experience with animation.

Backface culling is on, so no normals are flipped. You may get the impression that some vertices aren't merged because the left side of his "shirt" are actually extruded a bit, so it looks like a real coat where one side buttons over the other. It will make sense when you see the uniform textured.

Here's what I mean:



See how the "shirt/coat" buttons up? I simply extruded a bit to give it a little depth and make it looks real.