Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25222488-20150311220159/@comment-6697950-20150311221412

It really depends on the subbers. Some subbers are more literate, others take the meaning and use equivalent expressions in English. Some subbers add honorifics, others try to account for them or omit them entirely. And some things are considered normal in Japanese, but not so normal in English. For example, how characters refer to each other in third person (characters prefer to say '[character name] is' than 'you are'), because it's the norm in Japanese, but if you translate this literally, it will sound really weird in English. That's why you'll hear someone's name being repeated quite often, but the name will not always be included in the subtitles.

Of course, the accuracy of translations also vary. Some subbers, like Crunchyroll, translate without even taking a look at the video, so they often mispell names and terms, even though the name or term is given in English in the very first seconds of the footage... and some of their translations deviate from the original far more than needed (e.g. I remember one scene where they translated "then die" to "you're pathetic").

Simply put, subs give you a general idea of what's going on well enough. But the accuracy of details which aren't too important for the general audience varies.