Engineering a Head Canon

[Windswept Cloak]

I've left out:

In my head canon the story takes place in the 2040s.

[tailz]

In the orignal 1960s version, the story takes place in the year 2000.

I think it's either 2040s or 2039 in the 1980s series

As for the 2003 series, I would have to say 2200s or something like that. I can't remember if they even say the year since it's been soo long since I watched the 2003 series.

[Windswept Cloak]

The year is never revealed in the 2003 series.

It is the 2030s in the 1980 series.

[Earthshine]

My head canon has everything taking place in the 2040s as well. I think I got that from Urasawa's Pluto.

Also, I'm fairly certain that the year for the 2003 anime was actually well, 2003. In the episode Robot of the Year on their medals it had the year 2003 written on them and I'm fairly certain that there were other instances where the year was written. I believe they did this to honor the series as a whole as Tezuka first intended the series to take place in 2000.

I might be a touch wrong on the medals though... Hmm.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Well Astro's birth date was set at April 7th, 2003 in the manga.

[Earthshine]

Well there we go!

[Little Brown Fox]

That doesn't mean that the 2003 anime takes place then; but if it does, then it could be considered a sort of alternate reality, rather than something that was treated as though it was going to happen in the future.

The 80's series actually begins in 2030, I think.

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

That's the problem with setting a SciFi show in the near future. It eventually takes place in the PAST! Some of the people on this forum will live to see the time of the Jetson's!
(That took place in 2063, 100 years from when the show was first aired.)

[Earthshine]

Well I don't really consider ANY fictitious story taking place in any time as taking place in our universe as it is. To me they always take place in an AU, their own world, because they are stories.