That's an interesting theory as Ito was an established manga artist already. He might have no involvement with the creation of such a machine. Someone at Sega/Stern might have taken Ito's work and payed homage to it.
Very possible! I think it's worth us keeping an open mind collectively in terms of whether or not this machine was licensed (and maybe broaden our mind to a bit of a flexible time frame too) since so much is still up in the air.
