Hi,
I actually think you should keep the splash page. It helps to just say "welcome" to visitors. If people will be coming to your site regulary, there'll probably just book mark your site at the news part (as many probably do with Serebii and several other sites). Besides that, it's a nice splash page, too.
About the layouts, I like them all pretty much. The Zapdos one I'm not as keen about the thick black lines so much, but I am a little partial towards blue ^_^. Anyways, about the seperators, I see where Maxie may come from, but be very cautious about going to the "glossy". Sometimes going for something like that can ruin a layout in the attempt to make it more advanced. I suggest if you were to consider to do such a thing, just make a whole new layout with the changes. That way those of us who like the plain and simple sometimes (like myself) can still enjoy while others can be amazed of such features as having pokemon images faded against seperators with borders or something of the such (no offense). A lot of times, gradients can be mis-used in layouts and such, but in your case, I actually think you used for the better. So, good job on that!
Content-wise, I'm still looking, but I'm really enjoying reading thought it all if that counts any. A major point I like about it is that you don't try and make your site look like it has more than really does. It's all to the point and simple to understand.
Anyways, I really enjoyed your site, and I'll be coming back probably, too. So, good work and thanks for allowing the visit!
