Lightwave is certainly a very good bet in terms of it's modelling and general animation tools, but many find it is lacking a little in the way of character animation toolset.
Whilst the addition of better character animation tools has happened with the 7.5 updates to LW, it still lacks a little bit. If your budget can stretch to it (and if char animation is your primary focus), then you may want to check out a combination of Lightwave and Messiah studio.
(Check out Messiah here:
http://www.projectmessiah.com)