In case the title didn’t give it away, Chainsaw Man is a violent show. The anime features a protagonist who can manifest chainsaws from his arms and legs. As you can imagine, this gets pretty messy. Despite its grisly nature (or maybe because of it), the anime is popular. People love watching it, but would your mom enjoy it? Is Chainsaw Man for moms?

During a panel at Florida Supercon 2023, the cast of Chainsaw Man spoke about the relationship each of their mothers had with the show. Reagan Murdock recalled the awkward moment where he told his parents the title of his new show.

“I remember when I got cast, I told my parents, because I’m a newer voice actor, and all of a sudden I’m getting cast in this massively popular thing. I called my parents, and I told them I’m going to get cast in this show, and it looks like it’s going to be really popular. It could be really good for my career. They’re like, great! What’s it called? I said it’s called Chainsaw Man. And they were like, well you have fun with that,” Murdock says.

“I was really hoping the punchline would be mom saying I love that! It’s so cool! I read the manga,” panel moderator and Popverse video host Ashley Victoria Robinson says.

“She couldn’t get through episode one. I’m sorry. She’s there in spirit,” Murdock says.

“My mom watched the whole thing for all of us,” Ryan Colt Levy says. He speaks about how excited his mother was to watch the show after he was cast. “Do you really want to watch it? I don’t know if you’re going to get through a whole season of any kind of anime mom. But she literally has watched all of the shows I’ve been in, and she genuinely loves it. She’s the best.”

“We did a panel in front of 5,000 people at New York Comic-Con,” Levy continues. “We premiered the first episode, and she was just in the sea of people. I wasn’t able to sit with her during it. I got a text message from her when I went backstage that said, I get it, and I love it.”

Sarah Wiedenheft recalled how her mother was hesitant. “She was uncertain at first. She’s also not into scary things and gore, it’s not really her cup of tea,” Wiedenheft said. During a family holiday, Wiedenheft took matters into her own hands and held a screening for the family. “My dad asked how to start watching it on Crunchyroll. You want to finish that? Alright dad!”

Chainsaw Man English dub cast and director discuss the "bloody" good series.