IJN really worked on airflow around the stacks of their ships.
Part of this was in supplying feed air to the boilers, and in being able to preheat that air to improve boiler efficiency.
They also address, especially in Destroyers, the ability to have stacks that would "bloom" buring oil smoke screens in a rapid and predictable way. But, some of the capital ships had dramatics stacks--see Yamato.
Some of that came down to trunking the boilers both for intake and for uptake too. Having an even "draw" on all the boilers (IJN had a habit of fewer, smaller) means not having to rely as much on blowers to pressurize the system to keep the draw even.
Does make for some unusual, even organic, shapes.