begna112 says:

Sure, that’s part of it. But if I could understand Japanese, like yourself, I probably wouldnt be bothering with subtitles anyway. The hard truth is that I don’t have time to learn japanese, even if I weren’t spending time fansubbing. Very few anime fans do. And of the ones that do have time, how many have bothered to do so? So is my decision not to any worse than anyone else’s?

I feel that, unfortunately, no one has managed to properly localize honorifics in a way that really gets the meaning across. And almost no one has proven themselves capable of handling situations where honorifics are discussed directly in the subtitles.

Admittedly, there are cases where I have felt that the honorifics are unneeded or it’s just being said because it’s standard in Japanese. But you never know going into a season that it won’t become more. How I think of it is extra context. Reminders or revelations of their interpersonal relationships. Where you feel that information may be useless, I find a more complete picture.

For example, in a recent episode of Classroom Crisis, the teacher is speaking with his new boss and the two are using honorifics. They have a discussion based around who should have to adress whom with titles of respect. In the end, they decide to abandon formalities and go without the honorifics.

How is an editor to deal with that? What if, in previous episodes, the decision was made to just use their names with no titles and no thought was given for one deferring to the other with respect in the way that they speak? The editor either has to write story or awkwardly add some english formalities to the scene where it is relevant, making them act out of character.

While part of my opinion is based around pure preference, some of it is also utility in the fansubbing that we do.

There are also interesting professional analogies to the honorifics situation and whether or not they should be ignored or if they should cross language barriers. As an avid reader of fantasy novels in my earlier life, I came across lots of examples where non-english languages were spoken by human and non-human races. Did the writers and editors of those novels think that their readers would not be able to figure out what the titles and honorifics meant and so localize it when it is affixed to a line spoken in english? No. They assumed that their readership is intelligent and capable of understanding it and using it as a tool to inform themselves on the world that they are creating in their work.

That is the context in which I see honorifics: world building, relationship interpretation, and basic plotline, even. When I look at those three things and the information I, as a non-japanese speaking person, would lose when watching subtitled anime without the honorifics, I feel like I would no longer be experiencing the story in its entirety.