Next Sunday A.D. is almost exactly the same as ThePresentDay. Same politics, same technology, same brands, same popular culture...the only difference is that when you glance at the calendar, it shows a date about a year or two after the series was released. Writers often set a series in Next Sunday A.D. to avoid people [[ViewersAreMorons wondering]] why they didn't hear about the deranged serial killer or alien invasion on the news.

The trope name comes from the ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' OpeningTheme, though that series is not an example of this trope.

Compare TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, wherein the difference in time frame is a bit more apparent.
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Examples:

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''DeathNote'': The manga was first released in 2003 and the first few chapters were set in 2004, reaching 2010 by the end. The {{anime}} was released in 2006, but when L is spying on Light, the timestamp says 2007. The dub started broadcasting on AdultSwim that year, losing the effect.
**If the anime is released in 2006, then why does a shot of New York [[CriticalResearchFailure clearly show the Twin Towers]]?
***If it helps, the LightNovel [[AlternateHistory mentions a third World War...]]
**The Death Note creators' new series ''Bakuman'' started out roughly present day, I think maybe even a few months behind, but now has advanced to 2-3 years in the future over the course of the series.
* The ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' anime was released in 2006. The light novel series it was based on started in 2003. The [[spoiler:psychic timequake]] that everyone is investigating occurred in 2007, and the main series takes place in 2010, though this isn't revealed until some time later.
** It seems like the anime will avert this with future seasons and TheMovie [[ScheduleSlip as it will be at least 2010 by the times they come out]].
* ''DigimonAdventure02'' aired in 2000, but was set in 2002.
** ''DigimonTamers'', aired the year after, is set in "200X"; a calendar in the background of one episode says "2001".
** The original ''DigimonAdventure'' had the entire series set in August 1999, revealed to both the audience and main character Taichi Yagami when the latter returns to the real world for a couple of hours, and notices the calendar on the fridge in his home.
* ''ParadiseKiss''. It run from 2000 to 2004, but since main character Yukari is stated as being born during the Heisei era (that is, after 1989) the events have to take place in 2006 or later for the dates and ages of the characters to add up.
* About the only way you'd know ''PleaseTeacher'' takes place in the future is a couple of lines early in the series.


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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ''Button Man'' takes place "30 seconds into the future".

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[[folder: Fan Fic ]]

* The [[FanFicRecs/FairlyOddParents recommended]] FairlyOddParents FanFic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4324278/1/Wishes Wishes]]'' is set in 2017, but technology hasn't advanced at all in it. The only signs of it being in 2017 are what the characters say, and Dallas' high crime-rate.

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[[folder: Film ]]

* The WhatIf {{Mockumentary}} ''DeathOfAPresident'' aired in 2006, but was set in 2007.
* ''BackToTheFuture'' was released on July 3, 1985, but used October 26, 1985 as the present date. So it was set a little less than four months in the future...
**And the sequel, made four years later, begins the day after that. The third film (made in 1990) ends later the same day. Given the [[TimeyWimeyBall nature of the plotlines]], this hardly matters...
* ''{{Terminator}} 2: Judgment Day'' was released in 1991, but set in 1995 (as John is supposedly 10 years old).
** In ''{{The Sarah Connor Chronicles}}'' (which disregards ''{{Terminator}} 3'') the date of Judgment Day has once again shifted into the future compared to the series' airdate. In addition, the characters travel to a ''later'' point in time that's a closer match.
*** It doesn't so much ''ignore'' T3 as ''[[CosmicRetcon prevent]]'' it.
** And the upcoming ''fourth'' Terminator movie is set in the future of [=T3=], ''not'' Sarah Connor. The series has officially entered TimeyWimeyBall.
** '''And''' ''TheSarahConnorChronicles'' is starting to have people who travelled back in time at different points remember different versions of hist--... Future history. TimeyWimeyBall indeed.
**** The Terminator timeline never made a goddamn bit of sense to begin with, from "John Connor only existed because Hicks was sent back in time by John Connor" to "The Terminators only existed because Cyberdyne got their hands on shit that Skynet sent back thought time" up through "there's no fate but what we make up as we go along".
*The Neo-Noir gangsta rap flick ''Belly'' takes place in late 1999, but the movie was made in 1998.
* A newspaper headline in ''Film/{{Superman}} Returns'' explicitly sets the movie in September 2006, a few months after it hit the box office. That it's set as occuring five years after ''Superman II'', which undeniably was set in 1981, can be attributed to ComicBookTime.
* In Disney's ''Tower of Terror'' MadeForTVMovie, the characters refer to the events from the prologue (set on October 31, 1939) as having occurred sixty years ago. This would set in the film in 1999 or later despite the fact it was released in 1997. Presumably, this was done so that the film would date less quickly.
* The movie ''Knowing'' was released in March 2009 but the story takes place in October of the same year.
*''{{Godzilla}} vs. King Ghidorah'' was released in 1991 but set in 1992.
* ''The Net'' was made in 1995 but was set between June 11, 1996 and June 10, 1997, and most likely was set in the first three months of 1997. The date of birth for "28-year-old" Ruth Marx was shown as June 11, 1968. Most of the film is set in California, and usually in heavy rain, which occurs mostly in the winter there.
* Multiple scenes in ''{{District 9}}'' (released August 2009) are shot on camcorders and [=CCTV=] surveillance cams with timestamps in early August 2010. Of course, it's also an AlternateHistory going back to 1982.
* At the beginning of ''G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra'' there's this little bit of text: ''In the not too distant future...'' I guess that means it's just a movie, we should really just relax.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* The book ''{{Carrie}}'' was released in 1974, but set in the late '70s.
**Most of Stephen King's books time set is a few months after their publication. (i.e. a March-released book is set for that July)
* The short story ''Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius'' by JorgeLuisBorges was written in 1941 but has a postscript dated 1947.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''DoctorWho'', beginning with "Aliens of London", which has a "present day" of about 12 months after airdate. The current (2008) series has has a "present day" of 2009. Notably, some future episodes seem to have forgotten this, leading to a somewhat inconsistent timeline.
** The UNIT stories of the Third/Fourth Doctor era seem to take place at some point in the future, but how far is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIT_dating_controversy a matter of some debate]].
*** This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by the Doctor himself in one episode, as he talks of his work with UNIT back "in the '70s...or was it '80s..."
*** Three words: TimeyWimeyBall.
* ''TheMiddleman'' is probably set in 2009 despite its 2008 broadcast date, though it never quite comes out and says so.
* ''Time Tunnel'' premiered in 1966. It's "present" was 1968.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''{{Persona 3}}'' was first released in 2006, but takes place across 2009-2010.
** Along the same lines, ''{{Persona 4}}'' was released in 2008, but takes place in 2011.
* Every game in the ''SplinterCell'' series is set two years after its respective release date.
* ''CommandAndConquer: Generals'' is somewhere between this and TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: the game was released in 2003, but takes place roughly around 2018, being the American KillSat pretty much the only difference between our world and the game's world.
** Well... and most of the USA's [[FrickinLaserBeams laser tech tanks]] et al, and China's nuclear triggerhappiness. [[strike:And propaganda towers [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality that heal wounds]]. I wish my stereo set could do that.]]
** Notably, much of the more fantastic weaponry only became available in the Zero Hour expansion pack.
** Perhaps a better example being the original game, ''Tiberium Dawn:" the game supposedly takes place in 1995 (the game was released early in that same year) and the only real difference in tech levels between that game and the real world in 1995 was the existence of stealth tanks, advanced hover planes, and one example each of a KillSat and FrickinLaserBeams. And, oh yeah, Tiberium. Other than that, the game sprites are based on real-life equipment for the most part, like M1 tanks.
*** This game doesn't count at all. It takes place in an alternate timeline established by the opening of Red Alert. The advanced technology comes from building upon Einstein's numerous successful inventions in this new timeline that failed in ours.
**** Yeah, because we totally had time machines in the 1940s. Come to think of it, the entire C&C timeline barely makes any sense. Hell, there's not even a single C&C timeline; the events of Red Alert can lead to either the events of Tiberian Dawn or those of Red Alert 2, and the ending cutscene of Firestorm does not in any way feed into Tiberium Wars. It's like [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin they just make this shit up as they go along]]!
* The first ''ResidentEvil'' game was released in 1996, but set in 1998.
** And then averted with ''2'', ''Nemesis'', ''Code Veronica'', and the two ''Outbreak'' games, which all take place in that same year. [[POVSequel Within the same]] ''[[POVSequel week]]'' [[POVSequel for all but CV]], even.
* ''The HouseOfTheDead'' was released in 1996, and set on December 16, 1998. ''The House of the Dead 2'' was released in 1998 and set on February 26, 2000.
** House of the Dead 3 and 4 abandoned this with 3 being set in an apocalyptic future and 4 being set in the past three years after 2.
* ''[[IndigoProphecy Fahrenheit]]'', released in 2005, was set in 2009.
* The AceAttorney Series takes place mainly from 2016-2019 in Phoenix's games and 2026 in Apollo's game.
*{{Left 4 Dead}} is set several months in the future, as shown through death notices in the church.
** Valve's so sneaky, [[ExtyYearsFromNow they sneak in updates to the dates on those notices via patches every few months]].
* The 2005 game {{Battlefield 2}} is set in 2007.
* CallOfDuty If Captain Price is to be taken literally about his comments of his wet work mission taking place ten years after the Chernobyl accident, that would place the flashback mission in 1996, putting the date of the rest of the game in 2011.
*Every MetalGearSolid game not set explicitly in the past does this. [=MGS1=] was set in 2005 and release in 1998. [=MGS2=] was set in 2007/2009 and release in 2001. [=MGS4=] was set in 2014 and release in 2008.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* They ''tried'' to do this in the WhateleyUniverse. The first term of school is set in fall 2006, while the first stories came out in 2003 or 2004. But they've written so many stories with so many characters that they're ''[[WebComicTime still]]'' in winter 2006!
** Now they've just barely gotten to 2007, with some 2006 winter break stories still in the pipeline.
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