An animation cancel is an ability that terminates another ability/action earlier than intended. It either has to be faster than the combined time of those two abilities, or it has to give the player control again earlier than if the first action just played out by itself.
Anything involving Quick Melee is not an animation cancel. Nothing is not being terminated early, and you aren’t saving time by doing it.
Most of the movement abilities are also not animation cancels because movement abilities are typically activate-able at any time during unobstructed movement.
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Tracer’s Melee > Recall isn’t an animation cancel. It doesn’t shave off any time from the melee, and recall can be activated at any time as long as she isn’t under the effects of crowd control.
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Reaper’s reload > melee does not shave off any additional time. This was confirmed a long time ago by a dev, and then doubly confirmed with an Overwatch Mythbusters video test with timestamps. The melee is a free action that always deals 30 damage if you time it right, so there’s no reason not to do it, but it’s not saving time/regaining control faster, so it’s not an animation cancel.
The only real animation cancels in this game are either
- Reinhardt’s Hammer > Barrier, terminating the swing early so he gets control of his character faster
- Genji’s Deflect > SS/Wall Climb (he can terminate Deflect early)
- Genji’s Dragonblade Sheath > SS/Wall Climb (he can skip the period of vulnerability he’s supposed to get when he sheathes his sword)