The MX Media Twitter account made an offhand mention that is not going over well with fans yesterday by stating that they'll be dropping honorifics from their subtitles. MX Media, "Your one-stop shop for Japanese entertainment media translations" has been doing much of the work on simulcasts for Crunchyroll for awhile now and it appears that this across the board change will apply to all titles they work on and potentially other ones as well. MX Media also does translation work for DVD releasing studios as well and it's unclear whether this change will impact any home video releases.
Ken from MX Media has indicated on the discussion thread where this came out that they're looking into the possibility of providing two subtitle streams, something that Crunchyroll can do easily. After discussion came up yesterday regarding the pink-purple subtitles for their work on Otome Yokai Zakuro, it looks as though they'll be providing a separate stream in standard white subtitles as well for those that have issues with it.
Honorifics in subtitles are important to many fans, especially the market segment that Crunchyroll is trying to win over who want quick releases that adhere to fansub principles in terms of translation itself. With the Japanese language being as complex as it is for honorifics, standings between people and so forth, they're crucial elements and are something that generally sets the Crunchyroll subtitles apart from other simulcast providers that keep it more generic.
