When Does "The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance" (2003) Take Place?
"The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance" Part I & Part II are science fiction animated short films written by Mahiro Maeda that released June 3rd, 2003. So when is "The Second Renaissance" set?
It takes place on the fictional The Matrix timeline roughly in the years:
We know this because the two works are presented as faux documentaries and the first opens as if the viewer is selecting "historical file number 12-1" from "the Zion Archive". While this is far from specific, in the short comic "Bits and Pieces of Information" (1999), which takes place sometime between 2090 AD and 2139 AD, at least some of the early events overlap with the ones in these shorts. So it must be between 2090 AD and 2139 AD at the start of the first short.
~2100 AD - ~2199 AD
We know this because the two works are presented as faux documentaries and the first opens as if the viewer is selecting "historical file number 12-1" from "the Zion Archive". While this is far from specific, in the short comic "Bits and Pieces of Information" (1999), which takes place sometime between 2090 AD and 2139 AD, at least some of the early events overlap with the ones in these shorts. So it must be between 2090 AD and 2139 AD at the start of the first short.
About halfway through the first short characters are looking at a screen displaying stock prices in two shots. Each price ends with the word "December" and the number "25". Despite this number staying constant, red arrows, green arrows, and a blue dot next to these numbers indicate the stock price has gone down, gone up, or stayed constant. The previous shot includes "December 25" as well as "December 02" and "January" without a year. These numbers probably represent December 25th, December 2nd, and a day in January. Though it is fuzzy it is possible it is December of 2125 AD at this point.
The timeline of the Matrix Universe is fairly unique among the largest franchises because the human characters within its fictional world (diegesis) do not themselves know what year it truly is for the duration of most of the stories.
They are the first chronological short films in The Matrix universe and can be watched at their timeline point or as an extended flashback at almost any point, like after the film "The Matrix: Reloaded" (2003).
