Hara started her career as a junior idol under the name Mai Nanami. As a teenager, she sang the theme song Spicy Days (スパイシーデイズ, Supaishiideizu) for the animated TV show The Marshmallow Times on TV Osaka in 2004. She also had parts in two movies in 2005, the March TV drama The Dream of Delinquent Boys (不良少年の夢, Furyō Shōnen No Yume) for TBS, and the April theatrical release, horse-racing melodrama Haru Urara (Lovely Fields), which was later released as a DVD.