I think calling the pairings "basically canon" may be a bit of an exageration? Outside of Mahiru's failed indirect kiss making it clear that she has romantic interest for Karen, I felt like for most of the characters it was put in a vague enough way to let it be seen as friendship for the japanese viewers who'd want that.

I may be missing a bit of context though because some of the episodes I watched didn't have subtitles for the lyrics of the songs during the duels and ending themes.

There's been a lot of great Maya/Claudine fanarts anyway! I should check out if there's fics too.