Worse mistake

i feel like part of the headaches & confusion come from the way the latter chapters are pretty poorly translated but that's what happens when you're translating a translation... (going from japanese -> chinese -> english, some of the names are definitely getting Lost in translation)

the easy canon: Tsuburaya Norio is a retrograde madararuri/zooman, who upon being Thrust into the pheremonal and confusing world of madararuri that operates on "the strongest rule all and have their pick of the brood to mate," now has to contend with his own infatuation with Madarame Kunimasa while learning to re-navigate the world. Madarame Kunimasa is a boy with a relatively warped sense of how relationships should function and be built due to his own haphazard upbringing, and the conflict between the original main pair arises due to a stark difference in values. Despite this, they're seen to choose each other again and again.

the difficult canon: the Tokashiki household (Madarame Kunimasa's immediate family that all operate under the direction of Tokashiki Karen) have been suffering under the pressure of Madarame Makio's father. Under the rule of "the strongest rule all," he is seen time and again having little to no regard for the feelings of others, and is suggested to have a warped personality via his habit of taking on mates that are otherwise "broken," emotionally or psychologically (as seen in the way he takes on a 14 year old Tokashiki Karen as his paramour despite having a teenage daughter around her age, as well as the way his wife at the time would lash out at this transgression by stabbing his biological daughter). It's implied that the Madarame family is both powerful and influential, with strength enough to dissolve the Tokashiki household if Makio's father wanted. Despite the strength that Madarame Makio is shown to have as a heavy seed, she is seen to be subservient to her own father via the way she willfully relinquishes her own blood to her father to be his successor, likely as the compensation for saving Tokashiki Karen's life post the birth of her first son, Tokashiki Shinobu. Madarame Kunimasa, now raised under the Madarame clan, is noted to be a boy who struggles to go against the wishes of the Madarame family's heads by his half brother, Madarame Yonekuni. Following the canon set up within the series, it is implied that Makio's father is the strongest madararui within all of their circles and what he says, goes; either through brute force, through pheromones, or through the spells that heavy seeds are shown to perform to get lesser/weaker madararui to bend to their will.

But there is a madararui hierarchy to be observed. Irrelevant of What Makio's father is in terms of animal species (and he's shown to be a snake), the two types of madararui that trump all others are Mermaids and Retrogrades. Mermaids as they exist within canon are frivolous; they don't interfere or interact with land-dwelling creatures, ergo they have no motive nor reason to stop the tyranny of the Madarame family head. Tsuburaya Norio, as a retrograde and as a character that progresses within the story, is shown to be a character that can dispel the magic that other madararui cast and is growing into a character that learns how to use his own strengths as a retrograde to stand on his own.

(this is a theory) All of this is culminating into a likely showdown between the Madarame head and Tsuburaya Norio wherein he's likely to liberate the Tokashiki household (and Madarame Kunimasa) from the control of the Madarame head.

The Tokashiki Household is as follows:
Tokashiki Karen♀ and her partner, Madarame Makio♀ | Seymour Maximillion♂ and his partner, David Woodville♂ (aka Ginger)
• First Son, Tokashiki Shinobu♂ (byproduct of Karen and Madarame Makio's father, making him & Makio half-sibllings)
• Second Son, Madarame Yonekuni (byproduct of Makio & Maximillion)
• Third Son, Madarame Kunimasa (byproduct of Makio & Ginger)
• Fourth Son, (Tokashiki?) Hidekuni (byproduct of Ginger & Maximillion)
• Fifth Son, Tokashiki Manami (byproduct of Karen & Makio)

While I can't speak to the Eagle x Bat or the Snake x Mongoose or the Bears or Manami's friends side stories, Tokashiki Shinobu's story is the bridge that enables Norio to meet a mermaid (even if it's only a half-mermaid) that furthers Norio's understanding of his own abilities

if anyone has any corrections feel free to correct me lmaO i've been wrong about Things, this is just mostly as i've understood the sex pistols lore so far

i was wrong about Shinobu's family name, he's a Madarame both by blood and by name

also in retrospect, a lot of the side couple's plots feel like they're used as vehicles to just expand on the general universe. Teruhiko (& subsequently Joshua) as a reason for Kunimasa to use force in Keeping Norio, Seth/Wakaba & the Aogiris (snake & mongoose) as a way to expand on the logistics of mpreg in this series, & Manami's friends to further showcase how heavy seeds have relatively iron-clad control over their lower-caste counterparts both on accident & on purpose