Disclosed is a transmissive liquid crystal projector carrying a vertical alignment liquid crystal device. The liquid crystal projector includes a liquid crystal panel (25), on the light incident side and on the light radiating side of which a light incident side polarizing plate (24) and a light radiating side light polarizing plate (26) are arranged, respectively. A first polarized light component in a light beam collected by an illuminating optical system is transmitted through the light incident side polarizing plate (24) and routed to the liquid crystal panel (25). An optical anisotropic device (45), tilted by a preset angle correlated with the direction of alignment of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal panel (25), that is, a pre-tilt angle, is arranged between the light incident side polarizing plate (24) and the liquid crystal panel (25) or between the light radiating side light polarizing plate (26) and the liquid crystal panel (25). By so doing, a high contrast ratio may be maintained, while transmittance of the liquid crystal panel may be improved.