A retardation film, a brightness enhancement film, a polarizing plate, a method of manufacturing a retardation film, and a liquid crystal display device

The present invention, by using as a polarizing plate protective film, excellent durability, and a main object thereof is to provide a retardation film capable of obtaining a polarizing plate having a viewing-angle compensating function. The present invention includes a refractive index nx in the slow axis direction in the plane direction, between the refractive index ny in the fast axis direction in the plane direction, and an optically anisotropic film relationship of nx> ny is satisfied, is formed on the optically anisotropic film, containing a liquid crystal material, any x orthogonal to each other in further plane direction, y-direction refractive index nx, ny and, nx between the refractive index nz in the thickness direction ≦ ny