Unlike the Lupin story you may know from the books or the recent anime franchise (don't sleep on Lupin III, by the way, which is packed with plenty of fan-friendly touches itself), the story is still set in Paris, but our protagonist was born in Senegal. Here, Sy plays not Lupin, but Assane Diop, an immigrant raised on stories of the fictional thief's exploits, proving this story was meta from the jump. Lupin also loves to play around with these textual differences, prompting you to confront the morality behind Assane's handiwork. Look no further than episode five, in which Assane breaks into the apartment of a wealthy ,elderly woman and steals valuables looted from Africa. As Kay explained to Vanity Fair, the notion of an African-born thief taking those things offers a kind of material and spiritual payback for colonialism. "All he's doing is stealing it back," said Kay, adding "in a way there's a circularity to that."
