Not only is a round shield just ‘round’, it’s round in three dimensions - a slice taken off the side of a sphere.
There should also be hemispherical and spherical shield spells. Round shield is more popular, though, because it concentrates more defensive ability into a smaller area. Not that Nanoha has much trouble in the power department, she just winds up punching in and above her weight class quite a bit.
Another thing to consider are spells like Devine Buster. Pretty much all Buster and Breaker spells feature several component spells that are undoubtedly for energy management, focusing, aim assist, and protective containment. If none of that requires calculus, then I don’t know what will.
(Another thing to keep in mind is that Little Nanoha came up with Starlight Breaker all on her lonesome, using only Divine Buster as a template to work off of. It doesn’t matter how you slice it, Nanoha is a savant in one form or another. The fact that she can genuinely multitask is gravy.)
Just because something doesn’t ‘look’ like calculus doesn’t mean that it isn’t. Think of it from a standpoint of linguistics. If you looked at a block of raw binary, would you be able to say for sure whether it was a mathematical function, or just “Hello World”? (Technically, yes, after all it is ones and zeroes, but you can also say that all languages can be mathematics through the application of first order logic.)
In the case of Midchildan/Belkan notation systems, this would be like the Galifreyan circle system meeting with an alien mathematical notation system.
As for Christmas presents...
Ryoko might surprise you. Her tastes are more refined than most people give her credit for. Keep in mind, the floating onsen in the original OVA was all her doing. It’s just her actual sense of taste that make some people wonder. (Kitchen disasters, anyone?)
That said, there would be two gifts from Ryoko to Ayeka: one of them a friendly joke, and the other the actual, much more heartfelt gift. The joke I can easily imagine being a “Cooking for Dummies” book, while the real gift could be a very Christmas-appropriate bottle of umeshu (plum wine) that Ayeka happened to like very much, but seemed impossible to find ever since The Shift occurred.
There should also be hemispherical and spherical shield spells. Round shield is more popular, though, because it concentrates more defensive ability into a smaller area. Not that Nanoha has much trouble in the power department, she just winds up punching in and above her weight class quite a bit.
Another thing to consider are spells like Devine Buster. Pretty much all Buster and Breaker spells feature several component spells that are undoubtedly for energy management, focusing, aim assist, and protective containment. If none of that requires calculus, then I don’t know what will.
(Another thing to keep in mind is that Little Nanoha came up with Starlight Breaker all on her lonesome, using only Divine Buster as a template to work off of. It doesn’t matter how you slice it, Nanoha is a savant in one form or another. The fact that she can genuinely multitask is gravy.)
Just because something doesn’t ‘look’ like calculus doesn’t mean that it isn’t. Think of it from a standpoint of linguistics. If you looked at a block of raw binary, would you be able to say for sure whether it was a mathematical function, or just “Hello World”? (Technically, yes, after all it is ones and zeroes, but you can also say that all languages can be mathematics through the application of first order logic.)
In the case of Midchildan/Belkan notation systems, this would be like the Galifreyan circle system meeting with an alien mathematical notation system.
As for Christmas presents...
Ryoko might surprise you. Her tastes are more refined than most people give her credit for. Keep in mind, the floating onsen in the original OVA was all her doing. It’s just her actual sense of taste that make some people wonder. (Kitchen disasters, anyone?)
That said, there would be two gifts from Ryoko to Ayeka: one of them a friendly joke, and the other the actual, much more heartfelt gift. The joke I can easily imagine being a “Cooking for Dummies” book, while the real gift could be a very Christmas-appropriate bottle of umeshu (plum wine) that Ayeka happened to like very much, but seemed impossible to find ever since The Shift occurred.