The Akizuki-class destroyers were the largest (the Americans consistently misidentified them as light cruisers) and most successful destroyers the Japanese had in WWII.

Being designed as anti-aircraft escorts for carriers, they were equipped with 10cm high-angle guns (the best AA gun Japan had until the end of war), not to mention they were amongst the first Japanese ships to be fitted with radars. In the torpedo department they were weaker than their preceding classes, carrying a single quadruple torpedo mounting.

They were often deployed as destroyer squadron leaders (in place of cruisers), even though their bridges were a bit too cramped for the addition of an admiral and his staff, and inferior turn of speed in comparison to most of their contemporaries.

Overall, it was a solid and versatile design and most of them had solid records, such as Akizuki (Guadalcanal to Leyte Gulf), Teruzuki (Guadalcanal) and Hatsuzuki (Cape Egano).

sadly, Akizuki herself did not make it into the end of the war

By the way, is there a reason why this isn't a part of the broader "Historical Kancolle" pool? For people generally wanting to read through the Historical Kancolle pool, this pulls one side-story out that they might not find without a link between the pools...