Chihayafuru is a character-driven coming of age story with one of the loveliest female protagonists in the sports genre. It's a josei manga/anime about people who play karuta, a card game based off of the Hyakunin Isshu poems, centered on a girl whose dream is to become the Queen - the best player in the world. It's full of wonderful f/f relationships that are just waiting to be given queer readings. There are many shades of romantic friendships, rivalries, and mentor-mentoree relationships that can be found in all the awesome femslash ships! This is also a great fandom if you enjoy poly shipping because poly subtext can be read absolutely everywhere. Everyone should watch or read this and then request/offer it because I have a mighty need.


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A brief run-down of the ships I nominated, to try and entice you:

- Ayase Chihaya/Oe Kanade: Cute girls being cute friends and also totally crushing on each other. Kanade became the first recruited member of Chihaya's new karuta team when Chihaya recognized Kanade's passion for classical poetry. Chihaya at one point says that Kanade is the most dateable of the club members. They are so different - Chihaya is constantly exuberant while Kanade is a traditionalist who cares a lot about manners and propriety - but their friendship is so heartwarming and mutually supportive and if you care about misfit girls who care about each other and want to help each other achieve their dreams, this is a ship that you will like.
- Ayase Chihaya/Sakurazawa Midori: Midori is the coach of another school's karuta club. Before the series began, she challenged the Queen four years in a row, never beating her. She takes Chihaya under her wing further down the line. Chihaya's clearly got an innocent schoolgirl crush, and I think Midori would figure it out and not really be sure what to do or feel about it. She clearly sees a bit of her younger self in Chihaya, so there is a lot of interesting potential there for misplaced pining mixed up with ambition and regrets and nostalgia. Midori's a bit of a cynic, clearly, and a hardened and experienced player who spent a good part of her life trying and failing to achieve the same dream Chihaya's so earnestly working towards, and I want this dynamic to be explored a million times more than it is in the fandom right now.
- Ayase Chihaya/Wakamiya Shinobu: Shinobu, a karuta prodigy, is the current Queen, and Chihaya will have to beat her in order to achieve her dream of becoming Queen. Their relationship refuses to be categorized as purely a rivalry or a (romantic) friendship, and there's a healthy dose of idol worship for good measure. They've been bizarrely obsessed with each other since the first time they met, and each girl has had an enormous impact on the other, which only becomes more obvious every time they meet again. Chihaya is showing Shinobu the magic of friendship and teamwork, while Shinobu is showing Chihaya exactly what level of play she can aspire to and spurring her on to reach that level. They're also both weird nerds, and Chihaya dreams about her "like, on a daily basis"!! What more could you ask for?!?
- Hanano Sumire/Oe Kanade: Sumire is an underclassman who joins the karuta club simply to pursue one of the guys in it, and she and Kanade clash until Kanade shows her the magic of poetry and inspires her to take karuta seriously as part of her romantic quest. Sumire is an ultra-modern girly girl while Kanade is demure and traditional, and I love to think of them doing goofy things like going over classical poetry while getting their nails done. They haven't known each other for too long and yet have already formed an unlikely friendship that's at times brutally honest as well as supportive.
- Inokuma Haruka/Sakurazawa Midori: Haruka is the Queen Midori faced off against many times (unsuccessfully.) There's no way these two don't have huge, dramatic history together. Two adult women still heavily involved with a relatively low-profile sport, they come off to me as old-friends-turned-rivals-turned-lovers who eventually drifted apart and made Real Lives for themselves, but who still clearly care about each other and the sport. I also like the idea that for each of them, karuta is inseparable from the other.

I can think of at least four other ships I could have nominated, but we had a limit. Anyway, I hope I piqued someone's interest, either to offer/request something here or just to pick up this series for more general reasons! Besides the potential for femslash, it's a really great series that I recommend to everyone.