It was part of a Ran DVD box set years ago (2002!!) which I bought & Madadayo inclusion seemed an afterthought to me but I watched it & it cemented Kurosawa as a personal favorite of mine.
:)
Terrific haps. Particularly since I don't hear folks praising that one up and down. They'll go for the typical standbys - Seven Samurai, Ran, Rashomon, Yojimbo/Sanjuro, etc - but they won't jump at Madadayo.
So to see that love for such a ferociously underrated film is *everything.*