How was Norimaro offensive exactly? He looks like a regular civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time, but likely holds his own in these fights with mostly luck over skill.
Offensive for Marvel comic fans .... at that time (now a joke fighting game was becoming norm).
Imagine you're an American and your might and proud superhero idol got beat by a Japanese comedian otaku who couldn't fight.
He won just by throwing anything he could find in his bag.
Some of his joke's move (like inserting his fingers on opponent's butt) also didn't sit well with westerner gamers.
I knew about Pepsiman in Fighting Vipers but Takashi Iizuka in FV is entirely new to me. What's the story around that?
It's actually Daichi Katagiri, one of the lead programmers of Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighter.
He's just trying his model on the game but forgot to remove it.
When his model was found in the game, nobody know who it is since he has no name, so people at the time just assume that it's Takashi Iizuka.
In the rare error, his name sometimes appeared in other character.