I’m glad that other people think this is a great list, because I keep thinking “Oh, I should’ve mentioned X and Y and Z!” — like if I’m listing influences of influences of influences, then I have to stop myself somewhere, right, or else I’ll just end up listing literally every single anime ever made, over and over again, which is both unmanageable and redundant. I have to keep in mind that I’m supposed to only be scratching the surface, and have some faith that other people will mention the ones I didn’t think of, when it comes to stuff like mecha or yuri or magical girls.

Edit: for that matter, even if I did list every anime ever made, that still wouldn’t be a complete history of anime, because anime also draws inspiration from cartoons of other countries and from live action shows and films; and a lot of why anime has evolved as it has is because of budgetary/time/technical/bureaucratic constraints that are best understood by actually trying to animate something yourself.