Hiromu Arakawa's Full Metal Alchemist Vol. 1 from Viz Media topped the BookScan list of graphic novels sold in bookstores for the week ending May 15th -- its third straight in the top spot.  FMA's performance solidifies its position as the breakout manga/anime product of 2005, driven by the popularity of the anime series on the Cartoon Network.

Once again Dark Horse's graphic novel adaptation of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was in second place, continuing on a pace that should give it the highest year-to-date total by next week (it trails Tokyopop's Fruits Basket Vol. 7 by a small margin). 

The top six spots were unchanged from last week with Viz's Rurouni Kenshin Vol. 14 at #3, Del Rey's Tsubasa Vol. 5 at #4, Viz's Shaman King Vol. 6 at #5 and Tokyopop's Fruits Basket Vol. 8 at #6.  Frank Miller's Sin City Vol. 1 actually moved up from #9 to #7 will Viz's Naruto Vol. 6 slipped one spot to #8 and the R. Crumb Handbook dropped from #8 to #10.  The only new book in the Top Ten was Yu Watase's Ceres Celestial Legend Vol. 11 (from Viz) at #9.

The success of Frank Miller's Sin City series remains the phenomenon of the year with five Sin City titles in the Top 25 and all seven in the Top 50.  Even three weekends after the Sin City movie dropped out of the box office Top Ten, the graphic novels continue to sell in bookstores.   But in spite of Sin City's stellar performance, manga continues to dominate the list with 40 out of the top 50 graphic novel titles.