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Originally Posted by wingman32x
Eh, I guess so. But I don't think the scene had much buildup compared to the manga. In my opinion, part of what made that scene so epic is what preceded it. You saw Ai's times slumping, and you see that both Ai and Junichi are worried about it. Junichi starts to wonder if he's a distraction, if he's hindering her performance. He's honestly worried about how she's doing in terms of her times.
Yeah, Ai offhandedly mentioned that her times were slumping, but it didn't seem to phaze Junichi at all. Again, most of this is because the condensed the entire conflict into 1 episode.
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I think we can all agree that Junichi kissing Ai while floating in the pool was amazingly hot, but the anime doesn't need her swimming slump as a plot point as much as the manga does. The anime has many more meetings between the two, and we get to see Ai's affection grow with every episode. The manga, on the other hand, has only two unique events: Junichi saving Ai from a dog, and Junichi confronting Ai about her swimming problems, and the second one is questionable.
While Junichi protecting Ai from a mad dog does score him some points, it cannot stand alone. If it does, then it doesn't really show that Ai loves Junichi but just what he did. As for Junichi's concerns for Ai's swimming, this has yet to be seen as exclusive to the manga, because the ep 16 preview showed that Junichi was definitely concerned.
Some may also bring up the several attempts where Junichi asks Ai for a kiss. However, kissing is not an act to raise affection, but a result of affection itself.
It's really not natural to expect kissing by itself to suddenly make Ai like Junichi more. There has to be events leading up to the kiss, like the pool scene in the manga or the swing scene in the anime. Just asking for a kiss out of nowhere like at lunch or in the shed in the manga does not work alone.