Ryunosuke Sugishita, also known as Kouen Okumura in real life, passed away last December 24 at a hospital in Musashino, Tokyo, due to respiratory failure. He was 79 year old.

Okumura played a vital role in the Super Sentai series, Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger. He was the first chosen one to became AbareBlue but due to his age and weak body, he can't transform into one. Since then, he gave fatherly role on our heroes. He is also the owner of the Dino House, a curry restaurant, and the home base for Abarangers, in which recent Sentai series' mentors or characters met, as seen in the recent Sentai VS specials which started on Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger vs Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger. This is the only thing of occurrence that denotes Sentai's continuity.

Source: Tokyograph