Here is one that shows what I was talking about. The Hi is so mottled a person could be excused if they asked if tosai get hikkui. The sumi is a total question mark. It is scrawny. If you saw such a fish in a $10 sale tank, you'd probably turn your back on it.
But look at the head closely. See the pink tone of the underlying flesh? The skin is so immature it looks like it would bruise if you touched it. Realizing that, look again at the blotchy Hi. It is very immature also. It is still consolidating. If you've looked at Sanke and Kohaku fry around 60 days old, you may have seen similar mottling as the Hi forms and consolidates. It's hard to say what will happen next. The yellowish-orange Hi can deepen to a nice orange-red, but it can take years. While it is coming together, the Hi can expand or retract a bit. What's happening here? ... It would be nice to have the breeder's experience of watching this one develop over all the cullings that it went through over the past year. But, he isn't telling.
The body doesn't show any deformities. It has what I think of as a 'horse head'... bone structure shows up well and the head is big in relation to that scrawny body. Then there are those glistening highlights in the skin.
It can only get better, but how much better? Can you see this one as a 30" female? What a lottery ticket for dreamers.