The first time I watched this was in my freshmen year of college. Stuck with a roommate I hated, movies were one of my few respites. On Fridays he would go out drinking and other frat bs, which meant I had a pretty consistent quiet ~5 hours to myself every week. I didn’t really know what to expect other than stop-motion animation so I was awestruck by the beautifully disgusting world unfolding before me.
When I went to watch this again, I was in a very bad point emotionally feeling like I didn’t have I place to call home. I didn’t want to watch something comforting or normal, it would feel patronizing. I knew I felt like shit, and was only going to feel like shit for the foreseeable future, so the only thing that felt appropriate was something grotesque. Instead of continuing to feel like shit, watching MAD GOD comforted me and I felt better. Looking back to when I first watched this, I remember feeling a similar sense of comfort, but I probably didn’t realize it since I was also happy to not have to listen to my roommate. I still don’t know why this movie is comforting, it isn’t exactly cathartic, it’s different from that. I might never know, and I’m ok with that.