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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Why is it always X? It's like they couldn't come up with an exact year, so just make it X."''|'''[[The Angry Video Game Nerd (Web Video)|The Angry Video Game Nerd]]'''}}
 
Setting is important in story telling, especially when you want to tell what time period that story takes place in. The easiest way to do this is to simply state what year the story takes place in... however, being [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|too exact]] may sometimes narrow down flexibility. So in order to pinpoint the time and keep it vague at the same time, writers like to give the century number, but replace the year and decade with X.
 
For example: 20XX. You know this takes place [[Next Sunday AD|after the millennium]], but ''when'' after the millennium? 2097? 2030? December 21, [[Twenty Twelve|2012]]? We don't know, and that's the beauty of it.
 
It also renders the setting immune to the flow of [[Real Life]] time, since [[Real Life]] will never actually cross that date and make fans start wondering [[I Want My Jetpack|why the future doesn't look anything like fiction depicted it]].
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Power Rangers RPM (TV)|Power Rangers RPM]]'' was set in 20XX (between late 2040 and 2096).
 
== Literature ==
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* In ''[[Frankenstein]]'', in Robert Walton's letters to his sister, the date is given as "Dec. 11th, 17--. [[Older Than They Think]] indeed!
* ''[[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'' happens in 19**.
* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy (Franchise)/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life The Universe And Everything]]'', Ford and Arthur time travel from the prehistoric past to the year 198--.
 
== [[Manhwa]] ==
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* The [[Eastern RPG]] ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'' is set in Tokyo, 20XX.
* [[X Box]] game ''Zombies and Pterodactyls 20XX''
* [[PSPlay Station 2]] game ''Seven Samurai 20XX''
* ''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mega Man]]'' is a strong example of this trope, starting in 200X and later moving into 20XX. The spinoffs are all set relative to this ambiguous date; the ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|X]]'' series takes place in 21XX, and drags on into 22XX, while ''[[Mega Man Battle Network (Video Game)|Battle Network]]'' is an alternate 200X. The later games in the main timeline starting with ''[[Mega Man Zero (Video Game)|Mega Man Zero]]'' (which was assumed to take place in 22XX before ''[[Mega Man X Command Mission (Video Game)|Mega Man X Command Mission]]'' came out) have abandoned this & don't specify any dates, possibly because the world has [[After the End|suffered so many successive apocalypses]] by this point that people don't even remember what year it's supposed to be. According to the [[All There in the Manual|''Perfect Memories'' sourcebook]], the ''[[Mega Man Legends (Video Game)|Legends]]'' series takes place around 6000 years after the end of the ''X'' series, but that's about all we know.
* [[Hamumu Software]]'s ''[[Robot Wants Series]]'' game ''Robot Wants Puppy'' had an [[Opening Scroll]] about rebels in the year 20XX plotting to liberate Zeta Sector from the iron-tentacled rule of the tyrannical Morgox the Unborn.
* ''[[Earthbound]]'' is set in 199X. If you borrow a map from the library and then talk to the librarian again, you are told you don't have to return the map until the year 2002, [[Reverse Funny Aneurysm|much to the amusement of modern-day fans]].
* ''[[Double Dragon]] II: The Revenge'' is set at the aftermath of a Nuclear War that occurred sometime before the year "19XX". Oddly, the Japanese manuals for the first game sets the plot in the slightly more specific year of "199X".
* The ''[[Wario Ware (Video Game)|Wario Ware]]'' games take place in 20XX
* ''[[Half-Life (Video Gameseries)|Half-Life]]'' takes place on May 16, 200X.
* ''[[Metroid]]'' is set in 20X5. Like ''Mega Man'', the other games in the series all take place relative to the ambiguous date of 20X5 in the original.
* The ''[[Streets of Rage]]'' games are set in 199X.
* ''[[Bomberman (Video Game)|Bomberman]] Generation'' takes place in "[[Alternative Calendar|cosmic year]] 200X".
* The [[Konami]] 3D [[Shoot'Em Up]] ''Falsion'' is set in 21XX.
* ''Godzilla: Monster of Monsters!'' takes place in "2XXX A.D."
 
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* In ''[[Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|Homestar Runner]]'', the anime counterparts of the main cast hail from the year 20X6. Which they pronounce as [[Exty Years From Now|"Twenty exty-six"]].
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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