Hi! New guy here, but you all just touched on one of my favorite shows, Iron Chef.
I still much prefer the Japanese production over the American one. Here's where I think the American one goes wrong:
No banter - All you hear through most of the show is Alton's commentating. I am a big fan of Alton Brown, but he needs some people to talk to besides Kevin. If you watch the original, you have an announcer (Fukui), an expert (Hattori), and one or two of the judges, and they all talk about the battle with each other. If Alton had a few people with him to look on the battle and talk, it would be much better I think. I can only imagine how good the Tsai/Flay battle could've been if Ted Allen and Alton could have bantered through the entire battle.
The choices in Iron Chefs - I'm with most of you on this one. Flay shouldn't be there. I would've much rather seen three master chefs that I had never heard of, as we would then be seeing things we aren't already used to.
Choice of who to battle - In IC America, the chairman (a character the show could do without, really) makes the choice of who the challenger is to battle. In the Japanese show, the challenger almost always makes this choice themselves, except in rare "special occasion" battles.
How about a little more on the challenger? - One of the things I like most about the Japanese series is that they spend an easy 5-6 minutes talking all about the challengers and giving their histories. It gives context to the entire battle.
There are, however, a few things I think they do well:
Alton and Kevin - These two work well together, and I think Kevin Brauch was a great choice for floor reporter. I like him on The Thirsty Traveller quite a bit.
The communication between people - I actually like how you can clearly hear the two chefs, the judges, and Alton all together, and how well they can communicate with each other across the floor. Now if only they would expand on this a little...
Okay, that's it for now. Sorry for the long newbie post.