That first bad ending is mind-blowing to me, it's almost exactly the scenario I described to a friend a few years back for how I wanted School Rumble to end, minus my suggestion of having the heroine strung out on some illicit drug (Heroin?) and the final frame saying "This is the true canon ending, you have to accept this as the end to the story suckers!" Even then it would've been more satisfying than what we got...