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The part I'm asking about is 'Shounen'. I was under the impression that shounen (少年) was like the word 'guys' in English, and 'niños' and 'chicos' in Spanish, that is, words that can refer to strictly boys or a mixed group of boys and girls. An example of this use in Japanese would be the National Institution for Youth Education or 独立行政法人 国立青少年教育振興機構 (website: http://www.niye.go.jp/).

So should we really be saying 'Detective Kids' or something?

Um, 'shounen' literally means 'boy', but it also can be used as 'young'.

When you go meet a group of boys and girls, do you say "Hello, boys and girls!" or "Hello, guys!"?
Both work, even though 'guys' isn't meant for girls.

So, no! "Detective Boys" is a good translation.

inb4 Junior Detective League (a more direct translation and one actually used in Catalan and probably other dubs).

dumytru wrote:Um, 'shounen' literally means 'boy', but it also can be used as 'young'.

As "proof" of that, there's at least one time when Kudo is called shounan tantei, because he's a young detective. I don't remember which case, precisely.

dumytru wrote:Um, 'shounen' literally means 'boy', but it also can be used as 'young'.

When you go meet a group of boys and girls, do you say "Hello, boys and girls!" or "Hello, guys!"?
Both work, even though 'guys' isn't meant for girls.

So, no! "Detective Boys" is a good translation.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. 'Boys' is not a gender-neutral term, while 'shounen' is, in this case. Shouldn't we use a similarly matching gender-neutral term for young people?

On a side note, I've always understood 'guys' to be just like 'shounen' in that it is used for a mixed group or for a group of men only.

usotsuki wrote:inb4 Junior Detective League (a more direct translation and one actually used in Catalan and probably other dubs).

Yes, that is what is used in the English dub. I just don't like how they use the word 'league' for 'dan'; sounds a bit cheesy to me =)

There are few truly gender neutral pronouns in general for English. People, kids, folks... that sort. Nothing spectacularly specific.

However most masculine terms are "soft," meaning they can be read as either gender-restrictive or gender-inclusive based on context/motivation. Man is used to refer to males true, as well as (hu)man(kind), which is male and female. You can say guys and mean both males and females. "Alright boys, let's get to work," can also express general neutral standings. Standouts against this are singular terms like "he/him--simply because we are expected to be precise when dealing with a single entity.

Females however get the unique terms, as "gals," "women," "ladies," "girls," etc all refer exclusively to groups of females (of course baring sarcasm or insult) virtually universally.

In the case of Shounen, it can be generally used to mean "youth," but has the a masculine undertone, making it's closet translation "boy." But again, "boy" is distinct from "boys," but since Japanese lacks plurals, it can be used a little more openly.

Basically what Freyr said.

It doesn't help that English isn't very inflected.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider this:
French - English:
Je suis - I am
Tu es - You are
Il/Elle est - He/She/It is
Nous sommes - We are
Vous etes - You (plural) are
Ils/Elles sont - Them/They are

From my experience, I've found that 'shounen' does not really translate into 'guys'.
It is quite a gendered term, so if somebody pointed at a group of girls and said something like, "Asoko ni iru shounentachi ni kiite mireba?" it would be very, very strange.
You might see it used in terms of 'youths', but only when referring to boys mixed in with girls.

The literal translation of Junior Detective League works really well, so kudos to whoever came up with that.

On the whole, I'd love it if they referenced Sherlock Holmes and called them something like the Beika Irregulars, but I can only dream of the possibilities.

Well, James Black did call them the 'Irregulars' in his first appearance.