Japanese version was much better:
-Better Kitchen Stadium
-More interesting ingredients (Really... they had catfish as an ingredient here... let's try to compare this to say, sea cucumber? Maybe we can talk about some live octopus?)
-Better Commentary. The people on the Japanese version, as dumb as the dubs may be, you can tell they actually knew something and the commentary ran through the entire show. The American Version the judges are just kind of there for show.
-Less Corny. Really, in the American version, whats with the karate master guy and the whole lid flying up into the roof when the ingredient is revealed? I thought the drape being pulled off was much more dramatic anyway...
-Less Scripted. If you notice, the Americans don't get to choose who they want to face. I think that chairman guy is just trying to make himself seem more important when it's really supposed to be about food. Gawsh!
-Actually had the better Chefs. Now, I'm not saying that the new ones are bad, but besides Morimoto, all the others either have their own show on Food Netwrok(not to mention Alton Brown doing the commentary, really?)
Overall, I really think it's just an overall disgrace. I love old-school Iron Chef. It makes me angry that the original version isn't on DVD and the new crappy version is.