Gods with "sama"-honorific treated as full names in Viz?

[Rocketman]

Lord God sounds really stupid

It's fairly commonly used terminology in Christianity, at least.

Honorifics don't need to be directly translated every time they appear.

Indeed. What Japanese conveys with a word add-on, English almost always conveys with tone.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I honestly cannot see why you would think that mirroring the images would cause more loss than the actual words they're saying.

It would. Text in the background and on people's clothes will get mirrored. It looks fucking horrible.

My biggest problem with your stance is that your argument for translating or removing honorifics is the same argument for flipping the manga, and for changing any setting or character trait or name or reference to something more American.

Because that's "americanizing", not "translating". There's a difference, you know (see: what Kaboom said).

This is what we mean by 'slippery slope', if you think your argument for losing honorifics is sound, then why not keep going with that logic and change Son Goku to George Smith? And make him a football player, not a martial artist. And he lives in Texas, not this fantastical East District.

Changing "Son Gokū" to "George Smith", is an americaniztion. Changing "san" to "mister", is a translation. See the difference?

[Piccolo Daimao]

Lord God sounds really stupid

It's fairly commonly used terminology in Christianity, at least.

It would still look awkward. It'd be like calling him "God" twice. Also note, in Viz, they had Yamcha and the others refer to Kaiô as "My lord", which could probably be used as a substitute for a honorific. Then again, that is a little ambiguous. I was thinking that they could instead use "Great", but that would be misconstrued with the actual "Dai-Kaiô" or "Dai-Kaiôshin", since that's their actual titles, not just an adjective (although Goku does refer to the elder Kaioshin with "Dai-Kaiôshin" once. But that was just once). But anyway, it can be conveyed in tone. Honorifics aren't absolutely necessary. Goku and the others in Viz call Kami "Kami-sama" all the time, but it never seems as if they're purposely doing it to show respect, more as if it's an actual name (which goes back to my original topic). Well, it's up to the translator. I've only taken the "sama" honorific in my stride because Viz pretty much only use it for the gods, and as their actual names too (or full titles). At least there should be consistency. If you're going to make Kami "Kami-sama", call Karin "Karin-sama", not "Master Karin".

[Innagadadavida]

It would still look awkward. It'd be like calling him "God" twice.

No, it is appropriate. It would be like saying "God, my king." Lord in this case actually works like an honorific. Similar to Mister and Misses.