Lord of the Rings Japanese subtitler canned

The official Lord of the Rings site reports that the translator responsible for the Japanese subtitles for the first film is to be ditched from the second after numerous complaints from fans. A Japanese article at Slashdot Japan notes that the translator concerned is Natsuko Toda, probably the only member of the profession to be a household name here, and who tends to get subtitling work for most of the juiciest releases.

I've watched numerous films subtitled by Ms. Toda and I must admit they generally do contain a few clangers, mostly simple errors of interpretation. (I am a compulsive reader of Japanese video subtitles purely because they're in my line of sight; at the cinema they're displayed vertically on the right of the screen, out of the way). I have heard the theory that she's just putting concerns of style or space ahead of outright accuracy--getting something that's plausible Japanese and within the character limits is probably not easy--but even so, changing things outright has got to be exceeding one's responsibilities.