Kirk Thornton has been a voice actor for over 40 years. His major roles include Brandon Heat in Gungrave, Hotohori in Fushigi Yūgi, Klein in Sword Art Online, Jin in Samurai Champloo, Hajime Saito in Rurouni Kenshin, Jet Link in Cyborg 009, Don Patch in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Ensign Nogami in The Cockpit and numerous Digimon. Additionally, Thornton co-directed for the popular anime series Bleach alongside Wendee Lee and also serves as the narrator. In video games, he voices Number VII Organization XIII member Saïx in the Kingdom Hearts series and Shadow the Hedgehog (since 2010) and Orbot (since 2008) in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.