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20 Minutes into the Past

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"The past is another country. 1987's just the Isle of Wight."
— The Doctor, Doctor Who, "Father's Day" (aired in 2005)

A work that is shot so that it looks like it happened sometime in the years before it was actually filmed, often right around the time that the target audience were kids. It's not a historical or nostalgic piece related to some specific event, person or story written in that time and thus specifically tied down, but it may have a specific date attached just to increase realism or allow for Establishing Shots so you can imagine the mindset of the characters. For instance, the Cold War mindset is used now in works set in that time period even if the story has nothing to do with it; a similar phenomenon has occurred concerning 9/11. It may be tinged with nostalgia, or maybe the props were just easy to pick up at a secondhand store. In recent times, this can be to avoid the parts of modern life that can make the plot unworkable, such as mobile phones and social media like YouTube and Facebook.

In some cases, this can be the result of the work in question being a prequel to a work that was set in the present day, a sequel to a work which took place in the present day in which much less time passes between the works in universe compared to real life, such as an Immediate Sequel, an adaptation of a work that was set in the present at the time of its release, or a work with a long production process that was set in the present when work began on it.

Vaguely related to, and is an inverse of, 20 Minutes into the Future, but without the Applied Phlebotinum. Compare and contrast Next Sunday A.D.. If anachronisms end up in unchecked, will end up causing Present-Day Past.

Depending on how much time passes in-universe during the series' run, a show that starts off in the Present Day may become this.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • Another had the original novel written in 2009 and the anime in 2012, but is set in 1998. The fact that cell phones are less than reliable comes up a few times in the story.
  • Ayashimon is set in 1992, about thirty years before it was written. Mostly this shows in the manga Maruo reads being from the late 80s and early 90s.
  • Chainsaw Man started in 2018, but is eventually shown to be set in an Alternate History 1997. Mostly this just shows in characters lacking cellphones, but becomes much more significant in Part 2 when it turns out expectations of a 1999 apocalypse are very well-founded.
  • Digimon
    • The original pilot, which sets up the backstory of Digimon Adventure, takes place in 1995, while it aired in 1999.
    • In Adventure proper, the arc set in the human world, which took place from August 1 to August 3, 1999, aired from September to December 1999. The latest date of August 3 also serves as the date that the human world scenes in the final two episodes, which aired in March 2000, took place.
    • Digimon Adventure tri. is set in 2005, a few years after Digimon Adventure 02 with the main characters now in high school, despite airing 10 years later in 2015 and finishing up in 2018.
    • The follow up movie Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna takes place in 2010, but was released in 2020, to match with the characters now being college aged.
    • Likewise, the next film Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning, released in 2023, takes place in 2012, that year being significant as one of the character's birthdates being a Leap Day is a plot point.
  • While ERASED started in 2012 (with the anime airing in 2016), its "present day" setting is in 2006. It even starts on a kind of "Mister Sandman" Sequence, with a TV newscast in the background about the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
  • High Score Girl was initially serialized in 2010, but the story itself takes place in the early 90s, beginning in 1991.
  • It's Tough Being Neeko was serialized in November 2017, but Chapter 21, published in January 2020, had Neeko pick up a Nintendo Switch on launch day, which was in March 2017.
  • Negadon: The Monster from Mars, created in 2005, has many indications of being set in The '60s or a future based on predictions from the 60s.
  • Occult Academy takes place in 1999 but was released in 2010.
  • Takopi's Original Sin takes place in 2016, five years before the manga was published. The future segments, on the other hand, take place in 2022.
  • Yo-kai Watch: Forever Friends takes place in the 1960s, 60 years in the past.

    Comic Books 
  • Superman: The Pre-Crisis Superboy stories published in Superboy 1949 and Adventure Comics, via its use of a floating timeline, saw the Boy of Steel's era set in the relative past. As such, an early 1970s story saw Lana Lang interested in 50s hula hoops, while the Superboy 1980 book saw Clark meeting President John F. Kennedy.
  • Puerto Rico Strong is a 2018 anthology. Several comics take place in the recent past, such as Family Ends With Me taking place in 1969 and The Dragon of Bayamón taking place in 1973.
  • The Babysitters Club is set in the 1990s according to the technology. It isn't as blatant as in the original books, namely because the fashion is more ambiguous.

    Fan Works 

    Film — Animation 
  • Anomalisa is set in 2005, and released in 2015.
  • The Castle of Cagliostro: A newspaper clipping Lupin is seen reading after his escape from the castle sets the year at 1968; curiously, the original manga was already one year into serialization in real life. The film itself was released in 1979.
  • The Mitchells vs. the Machines is a downplayed example, it takes place in 2020, despite being released in early 2021. However production started in 2020 and it was originally meant to be released in 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Only Yesterday: The present-day portions are set in 1982, while the flashbacks to Taeko's childhood take place in 1966; the film itself was released in 1991.
  • Turning Red is a Period Piece set in Toronto during the spring of 2002, but was released in 2022.

    Film — Live Action 

    Literature 
  • Twenty Minutes Into The Past: Released in 1989, the modern day settings outside of the framing story are set in 1987.
  • Despite being set in the eponymous date and immediately after, later works in the 1632 series have started to use this since the American town of Grantville was transported to that time from the year 2000 - so writers must be careful to give their computers only the capabilities and programs they would have had then, for instance.
  • Adrian Mole: Each book in the series is set 1-2 years before it was released (published 1982-2009, set in 1981-2008)
  • American Psycho, published in 1991, is set in the late '80s.
  • Are You Seeing Me? was published in 2014 and is set in 2010.
  • Axiom's End, released in 2020, is set in 2007.
  • The Black Fox of Beckham was published in 2019 and is set a year or two before fox hunting was banned in England in 2005.
  • The Blue-Nosed Witch is stated to have happened no more than "four or five Halloweens ago" from The '50s when it's set.
  • The novel Blue Valentine was published in 2018 but the events take place in 2009.
  • Breakfast at Tiffany's was published in 1958 and is set in 1943-1944.
  • The Casual Vacancy was written in 2012 but never gives a precise date, though certain pop culture references put it late in the aughts.
  • Capital is set in the 2008 financial crash but was published in 2012.
  • The Case Files of Ibrahim Helsing, while being first published in 2021, take place in the year 2019.
  • Cormoran Strike Novels: 2013's The Cuckoo's Calling's use of Chekhov's News specifically places it during certain landmark events of the 2010 UK general election.
  • Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, from the Dear America series, was published in 2002 and takes place in 1968. Also unusual for the series, in that the most recent year before that is 1941 and the vast majority of the books take place in the 19th century.
  • Don DeLillo's Falling Man was published in 2007 and is set in New York immediately after the September 11 attacks of 2001.
  • Dekada '70, originally written around 1982 and set in, well, The '70s in the Philippines. The Film of the Book came out in 2002 and spans a time period roughly from 1969–1983.
  • Fate/Zero was originally written in 2007, while the main plot, a prequel to Fate/stay night set during the previous Holy Grail War 10 years prior, takes place in the mid-1990s.
  • Ghost of Spirit Bear was released in 2008, but takes place just as Cole and Peter get back to Minneapolis from the island in Touching Spirit Bear, setting the book around 2003.
  • The Girls was published in 2016 but seems to be set sometime in the early years of the 21st century. Evie is described as middle-aged rather than old (she was 14 in her 1969 flashbacks, so 61 in 2016, 45 at the turn of the century), and an off-hand reference to a San Francisco woman getting killed by pit bulls is an apparent allusion to the 2001 death of Diane Whipple.
  • Harry Potter is set between 1991-1998 or so while the books were released 1997-2007 and the films 2001-2011. Both the books and movies mostly avoid exact years, which, combined with the general lack of modern technology in the Wizarding world, means they could easily be set anywhere from around the 80s to the 2000s, although the films definitely look like they are set in the aughts (despite officially taking place in the nineties as well).
  • The Missus: The first book in the series, The Mister, was published and presumably set in 2019. The Missus was published four years later in 2023, but as it begins exactly where The Mister ended (which is set over a few months), this book is set a few years earlier.
  • Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles was published in 1920, but takes place during World War I. It is made clear by the fact that Hercule Poirot is himself a Belgian war refugee. It is also mentioned in the second chapter that "the 16th of July fell on a Monday." Using this clue, it can be inferred that the story itself takes place in 1917.
  • Modern Villainess was published in 2020, but the main plot is set in the mid-2000s. Some Alternate History is involved, but solely used to justify the continued existence of the Kazoku class.note 
  • No Country for Old Men, published 2005, set in 1980.
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower was published in 1999 and takes place in the 1991-92 school year.
  • The first two books of The Platinum Key series were published in 2015 but set around 2007.
  • Sisterland was published in 2013, with most non-flashback chapters set in 2009.
  • Ulysses, the famous novel by James Joyce was published between 1918 and 1920, yet is set on the perfectly ordinary day of June 16, 1904.
  • The Usual Rules, published in 2003, takes place in the months after the 9/11 attacks. The main character's mother worked in the Twin Towers and died in the attacks. Really, when it was written, it was more like 5 minutes into the past.
  • Jules Verne loves this trope, despite everybody assuming his books are meant to be futuristic:
  • The majority of Rosemary Wells' works would sometimes take place at a certain decade such as the 1950s, 1970s, or between the 1980s and 1990s.
    • While the Max and Ruby series is still ongoing since 1979, the setting would sometimes be a mix between the 1940s and late 70s since the characters still use old fashioned radio to listen to music and a radio show. But the characters are never seen owning any televsions. Which is odd since in one of the later books and a couple episodes of the animated series would sometimes show a character owning a handheld video game called the Game Bunny.
    • In the Yoko & Friends, Yoko series and the animated version of Timothy Goes to School appears to be set during the late 90s but the characters are dressed in clothes that are mostly common during the 70s and 60s while they still own 50s and 60s style cars.
  • Little Fires Everywhere, published in 2017, set in 1997-98, with copious references to pop culture at the time, including the Lewinsky scandal, which in this book was overshadowed by a local child custody battle.
  • My Year of Rest and Relaxation: Published in 2018, set between 2000 and 2001.
  • Rogue was published in 2013 but set in 2006, when Congress banned the over-the-counter sale of pseudoephedrine.
  • Harmony (2016) is set mostly in 2012, with flashbacks from the late 2000s and early 2010s.
  • Miracle Creek was published in 2019 and revolves around an explosion in the summer of 2008 and the trial a year later.
  • Shtum, published in 2017, set in the spring and summer of 2011.
  • Love Anthony, published in 2012, set in 2010 and early 2011.
  • There's More Than One Way Home, published in 2017, set in mid-2004.
  • I Think I Love You was published in 2011 and set half in 1974, half in 1998.
  • Language Arts, published in 2015, set in the school year of 2012-2013.
  • If I Fall, If I Die was published in 2015 but seems to be set in The '90s, judging by the lack of internet and the mention of shoulder pads in a flashback to Will's early childhood.
  • The Woman in White is set ten years before its release, having been serialized from 1859-60 and taking place in 1849-50.
  • The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was published in 1995 and is set mostly around 1985-1986.
  • House of Leaves was released in 2000 but is set from 1990-1998.
  • Blue Iguana was published in 2013 and set in 2008, when seven iguanas were killed in an attack.
  • Island's End was published in 2011 and set in 2004, at the time of the tsunami that devastated the Andaman Islands.
  • The Stim books were published in 2013 and 2014 but set in 2010 and 2011, on time for two earthquakes to strike.
  • Post-High School Reality Quest was published in 2017 and is set in 2009 and 2010, during Buffy's freshman year of college.
  • Sanctuary was published in 2022 and is set in the winter and spring of what is revealed late in the book to be 2018.

  • The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, published in 2022, has the protagonists investigating a thirty-year-old murder. That murder occurred in the school year of 1988 and 1989, so the book must take place in 2018 and 2019.
  • Cemetery Bird was published in 2011 and is set between 1983 and 2004.
  • Under Suspicion (Series): The first seven books were published between 2014 and 2020, but the series begins slightly earlier in 2013. The books also take place over a shorter time period of two years (give or take a few months), so the series as a whole qualifies, being published from the early 2010s to the early 2020s, but being set from 2013 to 2015.
    • I've Got You Under My Skin was published in 2014, though it's retroactively established in the sequel, The Cinderella Murder, that it takes place a year earlier in 2013. In The Cinderella Murder it's stated that it's been nearly a year since the episode covering the Graduation Gala murder aired and it's also established that the Cinderella Murder occurred twenty years ago in 1994, firmly placing the second novel in 2014.
    • All Dressed in White was published in 2015, though based on the timeline it's set a year earlier in 2014, a few months after The Cinderella Murder; it's mentioned in both this novel and the preceding one that it's been nearly a year since Under Suspicion aired its first episode and just over five years since Laurie's husband was killed; the latter occurred around the same time Amanda – the missing bride central to All Dressed in White - disappeared.
    • The Sleeping Beauty Killer was published in 2016 and is set in 2014, a month after the epilogue of All Dressed in White (two months after the main events of the novel).
    • Every Breath You Take was published in 2017 and is set two years earlier in 2015, about two months after the events of The Sleeping Beauty Killer (which was set in late 2014).
    • You Don't Own Me was published in 2018 and is set three years earlier in 2015.
    • Piece of My Heart was completed and published in 2020, while being set in July 2015, five years earlier.
  • The Change Room: The book is set in 2011, to judge by the fact the Arab Spring's prominent on the news. It was published in 2017.
  • Sorry, Bro: The book came out in January 2023, but is set c. June 2015.
  • Eric, or Little by Little was published in 1858 but is set in the late 1840s, judging by the date on Russell's tombstone.
  • The Mermaid of Black Conch was published in 2020 but is set in 1976. David's journal entries, in which he writes about his romance with a mermaid decades ago, are dated to 2015 and 2016.
  • The October Child was published in 1976 and follows the first four years of the autistic boy Carl's life. When Carl is three, Adrienne asks Douglas to take her to a movie that from her description sounds like The Poseidon Adventure. That movie was released in Australia in 1973, which means that Carl was probably born in 1969.
  • The Wild Orchid books were published in 2005, 2011, and 2012, but are set in 2002 and 2003.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Better Call Saul is set primarily between 2002 and 2004, and aired between 2015 and 2022. Certain segments are set immediately before and during the events of Breaking Bad (2008–2010), while its "present day" segments are set in late 2010.
  • The five years in which Breaking Bad was airing all take place exactly two years in-universe (2008-2010 in-show for 2008-2013 in reality), making the later seasons this trope.
  • Doctor Who: While the 1968-1989 run of the show was adamant on not setting historical stories too soon to their airdates (for example, 1989's "The Curse of Fenric" had its setting moved from The '70s to World War II), several ones in both the Classic and Revival Series are set anywhere from 20 or so years ago to just six:
  • Seasons one and three of Fargo are set in, respectively, 2006 and 2010, but first aired in 2014 and 2017. Seasons two and four, on the other hand, are straight period pieces, being set in 1979 and 1950.
  • Freaks and Geeks made in 1999-2000 was set in 1980.
  • Fresh Off the Boat, being loosely based on the childhood of chef Eddie Huang (born 1982), takes place in the 1990s.
  • Generation Kill came out in 2008 and is set at the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.
  • Girlboss aired in 2017 and is set in 2006, the year the Nasty Gal fashion company was founded (the series is a heavily fictionalized retelling of how this happened).
  • The Goldbergs made its debut in 2013, and is set in the 1980s.
  • Happy Days. Set in the 1950s-1960s, ran from 1974 to 1984.
  • How I Met Your Mother is an interesting example, as the main story takes place in the present, but is told from the future's perspective as if it were taking place 20-something years in the past.
  • The Kids Are Alright (2018) was released in 2018 and is set in the 1970s.
  • The 2006 Life on Mars and its 2008 American counterpart, which both take place in 1973.
  • Lost started out as Present Day (namely 2004), but was definitely this by at least the second season. Then it got more complicated.
  • M*A*S*H takes place during the Korean War, but it would have been twenty minutes in the past when it aired in the '70s and '80s. Now, it's more like forty minutes.
  • In season 2 of Mr. Robot this is almost an Exaggerated Trope, as it was released in 2016 and explicitly takes place around early summer 2015 (computers, newspapers, and the like often show the date).
  • Mrs. America, the 2020 miniseries starring Cate Blanchett, is set in the early 1970s.
  • Our Friends in the North aired in 1996 and took place in 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1987 and 1995.
  • Paper Girls: The girls travel to 2019, while the series was released just a little while later in 2022.
  • Sam and Al on Quantum Leap were natives of 20 Minutes into the Future, but Sam always leaped into the recent past.
  • Powerpuff: A sizable chunk of the pilot was set from 1996 to 2013, before the remainder of it resumed in the present day of 2021.
  • Saturday Night Live:
  • Storm of the Century: While the miniseries was released in 1999, it's set in the late 1980s.
  • Stranger Things famously uses this trope to lean heavily on 1980s nostalgia and pop culture. Aimed in large part at people who would have been the same age as the early-teen protagonists at the time, the show was first released in 2016, with the first four seasons spanning the time period Fall 1983-Spring 1986.
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has this for part of the pilot, since it starts in 1999 before time jumping them to 2007 (the year the show premiered). It allows for some real world events to surprise them, like 9/11.
  • That '70s Show: Aired from 1998 to 2006 and is set in the 1970s, specifically spanning 1976-1979 (ending at midnight on January 1, 1980).
  • That '80s Show aired in 2002 and is set in the 1980s.
  • That '90s Show: Premiered in 2023 and is set in 1995.
  • Treme Ran from 2010-2013, Set in Recently post-Hurricane Katrina 2005 era New Orleans.
  • True Detective season one aired in 2014 and covers three concurrent storylines set in 1995, 2002, and 2012. Season three, released in 2019, jumps back and forth between 1980, 1993, and 2015.
  • In a Downplayed example, Twin Peaks originally ran from 1990-1991 but was explicitly set in 1989.
    • Similarly, the revival series (Twin Peaks: The Return) was released in 2017, but since it was a plot point that the series took place exactly twenty-five years after the original run, it was presumably set circa 2014.
  • We Are Who We Are: The series was set in 2016, and released fall 2020.
  • The beginning of The X-Files is set in early 1992 though the show started in 1993.

    Music 
  • The Human League: According to the spoken-word intro on the Fast Product version, "Circus of Death" takes place in 1962; the song itself was first released in 1978 and was re-recorded for Reproduction a year later.

    Tabletop Games 

    Video Games 

    Visual Novels 
  • When They Cry:
    • Higurashi: When They Cry was first released in the early 2000s, but takes place in 1983. It's unlikely the series would work if the characters had modern day conveniences such as internet access or easily accessible cellphones. In fact, at the start of the second season of the Animated Adaptation, we see a now adult Rena in 2006. She is now quite melancholy due to being the Sole Survivor of her entire town after an incident in 1983.
    • Likewise, Umineko, released starting in 2007, is largely split between a series of murders in October 1986 and its aftermath in 1998. Both can be pretty anachronistic when it suits them, mostly when the author wants to make some reference to some mid-2000s moe trope or another.
  • Witch on the Holy Night was released in April 2012 and takes place in December 1988.
  • Shinrai: Broken Beyond Despair was released in August 2016, and takes place on the night before Halloween in 2010.
    • The prequel, Genba No Kizuna started production after Shinrai and takes place on September 12, 2010.
  • Katawa Shoujo is a 2012 visual novel set in 2008. This is a result of it being Frozen in Time: the game's development began around 2008.
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum, released in 2009 and mostly looking like it, is canonically set in 2001, as it is set eight years after Batman: Arkham Origins, which in turn is set in 93 if the Easter Egg detailing the re-opening of the titular Asylum is anything to go by.

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • Dave the Barbarian: While the show is set in a Theme Park Version of the Middle Ages, Ned Frischman, a character that comes across a time traveling device thanks to a heap of Deus ex Machina, is from the year 1994 - ten years before when the show started airing.
  • Once every few seasons, The Simpsons does an episode of this.
    • "The Way We Was" (1991), from the turn to The '70s, which featured Homer as a teenager, trying to date Marge. It featured bell-bottom pants and a Volkswagen Mini Bus.
    • "I Married Marge" (also 1991) is set in 1980, showing Homer and Marge seeing The Empire Strikes Back in theaters and Homer inadvertently giving away the film's (then-)big plot twist as they're leaving.
    • "Lisa's First Word" (1992), which features Homer and Marge as a young couple with baby Bart, is set in 1983-84: Marge has a throw-away line about the final episode of M.A.S.H., and later in the episode there are numerous references to the 1984 Olympics.
    • "That 90s Show" (2008) is set in The '90s and was a 30-minute Affectionate Parody of that decade. It had Homer and Marge in college, with Homer in a generic Garage Band and Marge with a '90s Jennifer Aniston haircut.
    • Of course, being a Long Runner operating on Comic-Book Time, The Simpsons features Negative Continuity when it comes to deciding just which era is currently Twenty Minutes In The Past. If one considers a suitable timespan for this trope to be the last two or three decades, say, then a lot of that period by now falls within the period the show has actually been running in Real Life (the latter is lampshaded in "Lisa's Sax" when Homer says that in 1990, "Tracey Ullman was entertaining America with songs, sketches, and crudely drawn filler material").
    • The third act of "The Wettest Stories Ever Told" is a retelling of The Poseidon Adventure set in the not-so-distant past.
    Homer: It was a dark time for mankind, a time when madness and ignorance ruled... the 1970s.
  • Family Guy. In "Meet the Quagmires", Peter and Brian travel back in time so Peter can relive life as an 18-year old.
    • American Dad!'s first Christmas Episode was similar, where Stan travels back in time to the 70s to stop Jane Fonda from (somehow) ruining Christmas. It ends with Stan traveling back in time again, this time to the '80s, where he has to undo all the damage caused by his first trip by shooting Ronald Reagan.
  • Recess: While made in, and set during the 90s, when the 2000s rolled around, the show stuck around in the 90s. This is firmly established in Recess: School's Out, where the villain talks about how he was holding revenge for thirty years since 1968 (the movie was released in February 2001, but takes place in June 1998).
  • Poked fun at in an episode of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, wherein the cast of The Jetsons travel through time to sue the present day - which, at the time Harvey Birdman aired, was now set further forward in time and more futuristic than The Jetsons.
    George Jetson: We're from the future.
    Elroy Jetson: Yeah, the 21st century!
    George Jetson: The magnificent far-off year of 2002!
    Birdman: (glances at desk calendar, dated 2004, the back to George while narrowing his eyes) Really.
    George Jetson: Yes, talking ape-man! We are from a society much advanced over your own! A society driven by sprockets! A technological marvel that gives us items such as... this! (pulls out a cell phone as big as his torso; cue Peanut answering a call on his own, much smaller cell phone)
  • While Pepper Ann was initially treated as taking place the same year it first aired in 1997, it continued into 2000, yet in-series calendars still say '97, making the later episodes examples of this.
  • X-Men '97, which premiered in 2024, as the title suggests, is a Sequel Series that picks up where X-Men: The Animated Series left off when it ended in 1997.

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