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[nullBolt]

I think the best rule is to keep them if the characters are in Japan, but remove them if it's set in the West. e.g. in Baccano you shouldn't have carol being called "Carol-chan" in the subs even if it was in the audio. If it's sci-fi / fantasy go with whether the characters have predominantly Japanese or western names.

But, yeah, I agree most attempts to "westernize" the "chan" thing are pretty terrible.

A example I saw recently was the movie of Moretsu Pirates. There's a girl Chiaki, and sometimes she gets called Chiaki-chan and doesn't like it. So the subbers changed Chiaki-chan to "Chiakky". Except there's a problem now, in that Chiaki and Chiakky are pronounced exactly the same, so the joke no longer makes any sense.

I do agree there's a time and a place. But I was watching HorribleSubs Noragami Aragoto and they're using "Yatty" for "Yato-chan". Just so irritating.

Saying 'chan' and other honorifics in the sub doesn't bother me, if only because there's no easy English equivalent.

There's pretty much no equivalent. Especially when it's -san and they just use the character's name. Pure rage.

[Orange Wizard]

I prefer honorifics and such to be kept in the subs, mostly because there's usually a bit of subtext there that's missed out otherwise. Same with title-honorific-thingies like onii-chan, there's subtext that's lost with just "brother" or whatever.
Stuff like Senpai is even more annoying when it's translated, mostly because there's no English equivalent, and any attempt at doing so is weird and clunky.

...

There was an anime recently where the subbed turned the -ne, -na from the end of a girl's sentences to be ", I think".

They weren't even trying, huh

[Reelya]

Actually the most cringeworthy thing I was just reminded of was the dub version of Onegai Teacher. The quick synposis is that the MC is an 18 y/o student and he's engaged to his teacher (who is incidentally an alien). In the Japanese version he calls her "sensei" whereas in the English dub he calls her "ma'am" but in an exceptionally whiny nasally little-boy voice. Calling your girlfriend "ma'am" like that just seemed extra-creepy - "Miss" would have been a lot better.

[Tack]

There was an anime recently where the subbed turned the -ne, -na from the end of a girl's sentences to be ", I think".

They weren't even trying, huh

"Let's go to the store, I think. We can pick up some rice, I think. It'll be fun, I think."

[IronyOwl]

I prefer honorifics and such to be kept in the subs, mostly because there's usually a bit of subtext there that's missed out otherwise. Same with title-honorific-thingies like onii-chan, there's subtext that's lost with just "brother" or whatever.

Same. French counts calling each other -chan doesn't bother me, and I'd rather not lose the extra information.

[Leafsnail]

One example is Kiniro Mosaic, where English girl "Alice Cartalet" was clearly meant by the Japanese author to be Alice Cartwright, but instead of using their ears and brain the subbers grabbed the transliterated Japanese written form, then applied standardized transformations to put that back into "English".

That seems to be the official spelling, and it would probably be "Kātaraitto" rather than "Kātaretto" if that's what the author was intending.

[Reelya]

It's a nice theory, but I went back and double-checked the Japanese audio version of Kiniro Mosaic. How the Japanese actress says the name would be a clear indication of author's intent.

Episode 1 season 1, around 4:50 mark, Alice says in English "My name is Alice Cartwright" with two syllable pronunciation ala "car-trite", which is very close to how you'd say Cartwright in English, and definitely nothing like "Cartalet". Since "Cartwright" also has the benefit of actually being a name, I'm confident that this is an example of something that's been lost in the translation process.

[Leafsnail]

If we're talking about Crunchyroll they actually ask what the official spellings are.  Clearly the author decided to make up a name instead of using a real one.

It may be similar to JoJo, where a lot of fansubbers attempted to correct the names of the bad guys before it became clear that Araki was actually deliberately spelling them slightly differently to the references (eg Wamuu instead of Wham).

[IronyOwl]

(eg Wamuu instead of Wham).

Huh. What'd he call ACDC?

[Cthulufaic]

(eg Wamuu instead of Wham).

Huh. What'd he call ACDC?

From what I recall it was pretty much an onomatopoeia of it, like Esidisi or something.

[Reelya]

If we're talking about Crunchyroll they actually ask what the official spellings are.  Clearly the author decided to make up a name instead of using a real one.

That's not really clear at all. The intended audience experiences the show through the sound, not spelling. And the audio just sounds exactly like "cartwright" a real name. if you don't have the spelling on-screen (as a Japanese person would not) that's all you know. Katakana are always going to be imprecise for English spellings. The audio expresses the author's intent.

What is more likely is that someone on the Japanese side of the production process was asked for the English version of the name for the script and that person was not actually familiar with English names and just transliterated the katakana instead of checking with the author.

[Leafsnail]

From what I recall it was pretty much an onomatopoeia of it, like Esidisi or something.

Yeah, that would be instead of something more like Eisidisi.

[Putnam]

Some translations really make me cringe, especially when they're common western names that should be straightforward. Goddamn some subbers are dumb.

One example is Kiniro Mosaic, where English girl "Alice Cartalet" was clearly meant by the Japanese author to be Alice Cartwright, but instead of using their ears and brain the subbers grabbed the transliterated Japanese written form, then applied standardized transformations to put that back into "English".

And I'm watching some obscure 1980's OVA right now, and there's a french girl called "Josephine Polly Nyack" in the subs, who is clearly just "Josephine Polniac". She even pronounces it perfectly fine in the audio, the subber was just a retard.

some subs and translations are just utter shit okay
heck, here's some examples of the top of my head

One Piece:
Tanjiahdo Lofulamingo and Bisoromi Bear of "Seven Gods of Pirate"
I don't even know what this was supposed to say, but Maynard's reaction is appropriate

Dragon Ball Super:
Speedsubs, the horror!

[Flying Dice]

Sometimes I go to streaming sites right after new episodes drop just because of how shit some sub circles are. It's pretty spectacular.

[Reelya]

At this moment the Nyack family from France is my favorite.

EDIT: Interesting contrast this week with the US/Japan manga sales
America: http://myanimelist.net/news/44371620
Top 10 = 9 battle mangas + 1 thing with lots of boobs. It's a common pattern in USA.
Japan: http://myanimelist.net/news/44335946
The top-selling manga in Japan this week is aimed at adult women, with women's manga making up the same percentage of the top 10 as shonen battle mangas. Really says it all right there.