Factory Head Noland

Factory Head Noland (Japanese: ファクトリーヘッド ダツラ Factory Head Datsura) is the Frontier Brain in charge of the 's.

In the games
His position as head of the factory allows Noland to view the Battle Swap data for any Trainers. He instructs others that just reading isn't enough to learn about Pokémon; instead, a Trainer must gain experience. He awards the Knowledge Symbol onto the Frontier Pass of Trainers who defeat him.

Pokémon
Like the player, he uses rental Pokémon. Therefore, all of his Pokémon are random for both the Gold and Silver Symbols, so he can use any Pokémon except for those that are not admissible in the ; these include, , , , , , , , , and.

Noland uses three Pokémon from these lists:
 * List of Battle Frontier Pokémon (Generation III)/Group 3 (001-151)
 * List of Battle Frontier Pokémon (Generation III)/Group 3 (152-386)

Quotes

 * Initial battle
 * Before battle
 * "Hey, Hey! Get a move on!"
 * "Hey, my name's Noland! I'm basically in charge of this place, which is why I'm the Factory Head! I had a look at your Battle Swap data. You seem to have the right idea, but you're still square in your head! Listen up, okay? Knowledge isn't only about reading books or doing desk work. Just doing that sort of thing... It may as well be useless! You have to experience things with your heart and your body, understand? I'll take you on under the same conditions as you. I'll be using rental Pokémon too! Shake out every last bit of your knowledge and bring it on!"


 * Being defeated
 * "Good job! You know what you're doing!"


 * If the player is defeated
 * "Way to work! That was a good lesson, eh?"


 * After being defeated
 * "Smart going! Let's see your Frontier Pass."
 * "Heh... You're a pretty bright spark... Next time, I'll come after you hard. No holds barred, understand? You keep up your studies!"


 * Rematch
 * Before battle
 * "Hey, hey! Get a move on!"
 * "Hey, hey! How's it going? You keeping up with your studies? ...Oh? You've taken on a harder look than the last time I saw you. Now, this should be fun! I'm getting excited, hey! All right! Bring it on!"


 * Being defeated
 * "What happened here?"


 * If the player is defeated
 * "Hey, hey, hey! You're finished already?"


 * After being defeated
 * "What the... You're getting out of my league! Sheesh! Let's see that Frontier Pass!"
 * "Pfft, man! That's absolutely the last time I lose to you! We have to do this again, hey!"

In the anime
Noland has appeared in two episodes of the : Numero Uno Articuno and The Symbol Life.

When Ash and his friends first arrived at the Battle Factory, they saw Noland having trouble with controlling one of his self-made vehicles. After using his Pokémon to stop the vehicle, Ash was introduced to Noland. Later, Noland called all of his numerous Pokémon to eat, and explained the high number of his Pokémon by telling that the more Pokémon he had, the more different kind of battles he could have. To Ash's surprise, Noland then allowed him to choose which Pokémon he wanted to face. Ash, however, had trouble choosing one Pokémon above another. Soon, Ash and his friends found out that the Legendary Pokémon they had seen last night was actually a friend of Noland's, which he had once saved with his plane when he had found it flying with a hurt wing. Ever since that, they had been good friends, often flying or even battling together, despite the fact that Articuno was technically a wild Pokémon.

Wanting to experience what it was like to fly with Articuno, Max and had went for a flight with Noland. Unfortunately, while they were flying, showed up with their new mecha, attempting to steal all the Battle Factory's Pokémon. Unfortunate for them, Noland sent Articuno against them, freeing the stolen Pokémon, destroying the mecha, and sending the trio blasting off once again. Later that evening, Ash surprised everyone by announcing that he wanted to battle against Articuno. Noland accepted the challenge, and Ash told that he was going to use his in the battle, which he had called back from the Charicific Valley.

On the next day, Ash and Noland had their battle. After quickly dealing with Team Rocket once again, Articuno and Charizard engaged in a dramatic battle, which, despite of Charizard's type advantage, turned out to be rather tough. Eventually, however, Charizard was able to defeat Articuno with its trademark, although barely. After the battle, Noland admitted his defeat, and handed Ash his first Frontier Symbol, the Knowledge Symbol.

Noland enjoys inventing things and riding on the airplane that he made. Rather than battling with random Pokémon, Noland allows the opponent to choose who they will battle against. He reappeared in a flashback in A Pyramiding Rage!.

At the Battle Factory
This listing is of Noland's known Pokémon in the anime:

In the Ash & Pikachu manga
Noland appeared in Off To The Battle Frontier!!. He becomes the first Frontier Brain that Ash battles. During the battle, he uses while Ash used. He was able to get the upper hand in the battle at first when Charizard struggled to keep up with Articuno but as Ash was able to turn the tables, Noland lost to Ash and rewarded Ash the Knowledge Symbol for defeating him. As Ash leaped in the air with excitement, Noland along with had to help him back up as he almost fell off of the battle area.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga
Noland debuts in the. He is one of the seven Trainers hired by Scott to be a Frontier Brain at the Battle Frontier. Noland is first watching the Battle Frontier's opening ceremony. The ceremony is interrupted by, who announces that he wishes to conquer the Battle Frontier. The press mistakenly report the incident as allowing an ordinary Trainer to take part in the Battle Frontier before it officially opens a week later. The Frontier Brains decide to use this assumption as free publicity and allow Emerald to challenge the Battle Frontier under the condition that he completes it before it officially opens. Noland, having found Emerald's stunt insulting, decides that he will be the boy's first opponent. The next day, Emerald begins his challenge of the Battle Factory. After Emerald finishes the proper number of sets, he and Noland begin their battle. Despite Noland's powerful team and type advantages, he is eventually defeated, which earns Emerald the Knowledge Symbol.

The next day, Noland begins investigating the rental Pokémon listed at the Battle Factory. He notes that the total number of Pokémon doesn't match up with previous numbers and the Emerald used to defeat him isn't listed anywhere. He suspects that someone must have broken in and smuggled some Pokémon into the rental Pokémon list, but before he can reach a conclusion, Noland is knocked out by the armored man, Guile Hideout. Noland is taken to a hospital, where the other Frontiers gather and suspect Emerald to be the culprit. They confront Emerald about the situation after he conquered the Battle Pyramid. Emerald reveals that he did not attack Noland and is actually after the Mythical Pokémon. The six Frontier Brains find Emerald's explanation suspicious, but decide to follow him into Artisan Cave to find Jirachi. They leave the cave after suffering injuries from a run-in with Guile Hideout himself.

Scott lets Emerald challenge Greta at her facility directly, then holds a crunch meeting with the other five Frontier Brains. During the meeting, Noland appears to them, revealing that he snuck out of the hospital because he couldn't stand lying in bed doing nothing. He asks Scott for the Jirachi Report so that he could translate it to find out where Jirachi will appear next. That night, Brandon comes in to assist Noland in deciphering the rest of the Jirachi Report. Together, they realize that Jirachi has a third eye, which must be looked at in order for Jirachi to grant someone's wish.

The next day, Noland assists the other Frontier Brains in ushering people to the Battle Dome. Noland reveals the he captured three Smeargle from the Artisan Cave that copied Jirachi's with. Noland plans on using the Smeargle's Wish to attract Jirachi, allowing them to capture it before Guile. The plan doesn't work as Guile discovers Jirachi first after it appears over the top of the Battle Dome and captures it. Guile uses the rental Pokémon to the attack innocent bystanders and heads to the Battle Tower to make his wish. The other Frontier Brains stay behind to help everyone while Noland heads off to inform Spenser and Anabel about the situation. Although he gets to Spenser, Noland is unable to get in contact with Anabel. After meeting up with Emerald,, and , the three head to the Battle Tower.

When they arrive, Guile reveals that he put Anabel under his control. Guile forces the four to traverse the Battle Tower's seventy floors and challenge Anabel on the final floor. Emerald manages to get to Anabel first, but is defeated by the time everyone else arrives. Guile holds Anabel hostage and forces Noland to give him the fully deciphered Jirachi Report. When Noland is unsure about what to do, Guile attacks him and takes the report by force. Now knowing the secret to Jirachi's third eye, Guile has Jirachi create a gigantic made of seawater and uses it to flood the entire Battle Frontier. Noland is knocked unconscious from the attack, forcing Emerald to have take Noland and Anabel to safety. Noland later awakens and helps the Frontier Brains fight off Guile's rental Pokémon while Emerald and the other Pokédex holders fight Guile. Eventually, Emerald and the Pokédex holders manage to defeat Guile and destroy the gigantic Kyogre monster. The day after, an injured Noland and the other Frontier Brains congratulate Emerald for the hard work he put into saving everyone.

In the, Noland and the other Hoenn Frontier Brains battle and defeat the Admins of Neo Team Magma and Neo Team Aqua, who had interfered in the launch of a rocket that was made to stop the meteoroid threatening to destroy the world. Later, Noland and the other Hoenn Frontier Brains are called to Sootopolis City to assist in stopping the meteoroid.

Trivia

 * A promotional Battle Frontier T-shirt sold at the New York Pokémon Center pictured Noland with, , and in the same way other Frontier Brains were pictured with their own Pokémon.
 * Noland is the only Frontier Brain to not have the first letter in his Symbol's name match his. The syllable no, however, does.
 * In English, he is one out of only two Frontier Brains to share the same title, the other one being . However, both and  share the same title in the Japanese version:.
 * Noland is the only Frontier Brain to have been dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment, as the other six Generation III Frontier Brains did not make their anime debut until the ninth season.
 * Noland shares his Spanish name, Sabino, with and the anime character Sawyer.

Related articles

 * Images on the Bulbagarden Archives

Kevin Sabino Sam Savino ダツラ 達拉