FUNimation Entertainment is experimenting with a new form of fan participation. The company is producing the Sgt. Frog series, about several frog-like aliens who plan to invade the earth but end up stranded here, and have to protect it instead. FUNimation has posted the first newly English-dubbed "test episode" on its YouTube Channel, asking fans to comment on how it's going so far.

The series is one of those that the company inherited the rights to when it took over several titles formerly distributed by A.D. Vision for Sojitz and ARM. The anime is an adaptation of the comedy manga by Mine Yoshizaki, and has been running in Japan for more than four years.

Checking many of the comments as of November 3, 2008, the reactions appear mixed, as one might expect. Those who know the series from its ADV days tend not to be sure if they like the new dubbing or some of the name changes, feeling as though it's "dumbed down" if the names are all Americanized, as though American fans can't handle Japanese names or having the series set in Japan. But others seem very enthusiastic.

FUNimation is gradually taking advantage of the influx of those Sojitz/ARM titles, as it also recently added the first two episodes of Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor to its Friday morning offerings of free streaming. Other two-episode Friday additions (though from FUNimation's own properties and not from the ADV-inherited series) have been Shikabane Hime, the vampire series Black Blood Brothers, Gunslinger Girl, and Ouran High School Host Club.

In the meantime, the company continues extending fingers into other pies, when it comes to free downloads. After placing the first episode of Witchblade on the iTunes Store service in October, it has now added first episodes of four other titles: Afro Samurai, Burst Angel, Basilisk, and MoonPhase.

The reward of all this work has been that FUNimation has largely driven the net sales of its parent company, Navarre Corporation, for the second quarter of this fiscal year. (The corporation's properties include BCI and Encore, as well as FUNimation.) Navarre has announced that the preliminary figures for this quarter's sales, for July through September, stand at US $170.3 million, compared to US $143.7 million for the same period last year. Much of this increase resulted from the acquisition of so many new licences over the summer, augmented by the Sojitz/ARM acquisitions and undoubtedly the Geneon as well. In addition, the fact that FUNimation pushed to make deals with YouTube, Joost, iTunes, XBox, etc. also had a positive impact.

If not for all this profitable activity, the economic climate might have done considerable harm to Navarre's bottom line. (The total year's sales are still slightly lower than last year at this time.) But thanks to the sometimes frantic-seeming work of FUNimation, things are still positive for the entire group of companies.