Well, his daughter at least, loves Sana Hiroki's portrayal of Maraich for the stage play.
An interview with the mangaka in 2019 has him express his approval of the casting of Bancoran, Maraich and Patalliro, in particular saying that Tsunenori is perfect for the role.
Cross-Cast Role: Narrowly avoided for Maraich in the stage play. Due to being rather effeminate, the producers were unsure if they should still cast a male or go with a woman. The mangaka's daughter insisting that the performer be male cemented the decision.
Dawson Casting: Averted for the 2016 stage play for Bancoran and Maraich who are 27 and 18 respectively, while their actors (Aoki Tsunenori and Sana Hiroki) were 29 and 19. Played straight with Patalliro who is 10 but Kato Ryo was 26.
Release Date Change: The movie based on the stage play was meant to come out around fall of 2018, but ended up being pushed back to early 2019. The most likely reason for this is that the actor of Bancoran was arrested not long after the second stage play finished its run and production didn't want the negative press to affect it so they waited for things to quiet down.
General Trivia
X Japan rhythm guitarist Tomoaki Ishizuka's stage name "Pata" comes from the main character's name.
Sana Hiroki read the entire manga that had been released by that point, around 90 volumes, in preparation for his role.
