Provided are a liquid crystal diffraction element that can make the brightness of light emitted from a light guide plate uniform and a light guide element. The liquid crystal diffraction element includes: an optically-anisotropic layer that is formed of a composition including a liquid crystal compound, in which the optically-anisotropic layer has a liquid crystal alignment pattern in which a direction of an optical axis derived from the liquid crystal compound continuously rotates in at least one in-plane direction, and a diffraction efficiency of the optically-anisotropic layer increases from one side to another side in the one in-plane direction.