diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.0.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.0.0.rst
index 47b7de04d7f95..15cdd10a8271d 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.0.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.0.0.rst
@@ -146,6 +146,7 @@ Other API changes
 - :meth:`Series.unique` with dtype "timedelta64[ns]" or "datetime64[ns]" now returns :class:`TimedeltaArray` or :class:`DatetimeArray` instead of ``numpy.ndarray`` (:issue:`49176`)
 - Passing a sequence containing ``datetime`` objects and ``date`` objects to :class:`Series` constructor will return with ``object`` dtype instead of ``datetime64[ns]`` dtype, consistent with :class:`Index` behavior (:issue:`49341`)
 - Passing strings that cannot be parsed as datetimes to :class:`Series` or :class:`DataFrame` with ``dtype="datetime64[ns]"`` will raise instead of silently ignoring the keyword and returning ``object`` dtype (:issue:`24435`)
+- :meth:`Series.astype` and :meth:`DataFrame.astype` casting to ``datetime64`` dtypes other than "s", "ms", "us", and "ns" now raise instead of silently returning ``datetime64[ns]`` (:issue:`49482`)
 -
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/pandas/core/dtypes/astype.py b/pandas/core/dtypes/astype.py
index 718badc2e4085..dfa0206f85caa 100644
--- a/pandas/core/dtypes/astype.py
+++ b/pandas/core/dtypes/astype.py
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 from pandas._libs.tslibs import (
     get_unit_from_dtype,
     is_supported_unit,
-    is_unitless,
 )
 from pandas._libs.tslibs.timedeltas import array_to_timedelta64
 from pandas._typing import (
@@ -292,20 +291,6 @@ def astype_array_safe(
         # Ensure we don't end up with a PandasArray
         dtype = dtype.numpy_dtype
 
-    if (
-        is_datetime64_dtype(values.dtype)
-        # need to do np.dtype check instead of is_datetime64_dtype
-        #  otherwise pyright complains
-        and isinstance(dtype, np.dtype)
-        and dtype.kind == "M"
-        and not is_unitless(dtype)
-        and not is_dtype_equal(dtype, values.dtype)
-        and not is_supported_unit(get_unit_from_dtype(dtype))
-    ):
-        # Supported units we handle in DatetimeArray.astype; but that raises
-        #  on non-supported units, so we handle that here.
-        return np.asarray(values).astype(dtype)
-
     try:
         new_values = astype_array(values, dtype, copy=copy)
     except (ValueError, TypeError):
diff --git a/pandas/tests/frame/constructors/test_from_records.py b/pandas/tests/frame/constructors/test_from_records.py
index b2efa0713b513..d038f608e9636 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/frame/constructors/test_from_records.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/frame/constructors/test_from_records.py
@@ -44,7 +44,8 @@ def test_from_records_with_datetimes(self):
         dtypes = [("EXPIRY", "<M8[m]")]
         recarray = np.core.records.fromarrays(arrdata, dtype=dtypes)
         result = DataFrame.from_records(recarray)
-        expected["EXPIRY"] = expected["EXPIRY"].astype("M8[m]")
+        # the construction casts M8[m] to the nearest supported dtype: M8[s]
+        expected["EXPIRY"] = expected["EXPIRY"].astype("M8[s]")
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
 
     def test_from_records_sequencelike(self):
diff --git a/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_astype.py b/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_astype.py
index 8e6aa43ff434c..d4abf06a5b7d2 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_astype.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_astype.py
@@ -418,14 +418,28 @@ def test_astype_to_datetime_unit(self, unit):
         idx = pd.Index(ser)
         dta = ser._values
 
+        if unit not in ["ns", "us", "ms", "s"]:
+            # We disallow; pre-2.0 we ignored the dtype and returned ns
+            msg = rf"Cannot cast DatetimeArray to dtype datetime64\[{unit}\]"
+            msg2 = rf"Cannot cast DatetimeIndex to dtype datetime64\[{unit}\]"
+            with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=msg):
+                df.astype(dtype)
+
+            with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=msg):
+                ser.astype(dtype)
+
+            with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=msg2):
+                idx.astype(dtype)
+
+            with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=msg):
+                dta.astype(dtype)
+
+            return
+
+        # GH#48928
+        exp_dtype = dtype
         result = df.astype(dtype)
 
-        if unit in ["ns", "us", "ms", "s"]:
-            # GH#48928
-            exp_dtype = dtype
-        else:
-            # we use the nearest supported dtype (i.e. M8[s])
-            exp_dtype = "M8[s]"
         # TODO(2.0): once DataFrame constructor doesn't cast ndarray inputs.
         #  can simplify this
         exp_values = arr.astype(exp_dtype)
@@ -437,32 +451,22 @@ def test_astype_to_datetime_unit(self, unit):
 
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, exp_df)
 
-        # TODO(2.0): make Series/DataFrame raise like Index and DTA?
         res_ser = ser.astype(dtype)
         exp_ser = exp_df.iloc[:, 0]
         assert exp_ser.dtype == exp_dtype
         tm.assert_series_equal(res_ser, exp_ser)
 
-        if unit in ["ns", "us", "ms", "s"]:
-            exp_dta = exp_ser._values
+        exp_dta = exp_ser._values
 
-            res_index = idx.astype(dtype)
-            # TODO(2.0): should be able to just call pd.Index(exp_ser)
-            exp_index = pd.DatetimeIndex._simple_new(exp_dta, name=idx.name)
-            assert exp_index.dtype == exp_dtype
-            tm.assert_index_equal(res_index, exp_index)
+        res_index = idx.astype(dtype)
+        # TODO(2.0): should be able to just call pd.Index(exp_ser)
+        exp_index = pd.DatetimeIndex._simple_new(exp_dta, name=idx.name)
+        assert exp_index.dtype == exp_dtype
+        tm.assert_index_equal(res_index, exp_index)
 
-            res_dta = dta.astype(dtype)
-            assert exp_dta.dtype == exp_dtype
-            tm.assert_extension_array_equal(res_dta, exp_dta)
-        else:
-            msg = rf"Cannot cast DatetimeIndex to dtype datetime64\[{unit}\]"
-            with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=msg):
-                idx.astype(dtype)
-
-            msg = rf"Cannot cast DatetimeArray to dtype datetime64\[{unit}\]"
-            with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=msg):
-                dta.astype(dtype)
+        res_dta = dta.astype(dtype)
+        assert exp_dta.dtype == exp_dtype
+        tm.assert_extension_array_equal(res_dta, exp_dta)
 
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("unit", ["ns"])
     def test_astype_to_timedelta_unit_ns(self, unit):